(YouTube link)

Have you ever seen an airplane propeller that looked like this? It's called the rolling shutter effect {wiki}. A cell phone camera records what it sees by scanning from one side of the frame to the other (or top to bottom), and strange things happen when the scene you are shooting moves faster than the image scanner. Another video illustrates how the slow scanning process of a cell phone camera creates this effect. -via reddit

Every week, y'all get mighty creative on us for the 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. Even if you have no idea what he's saying, check out the other entries! Also check out Mal and Chad’s comic strip adventures by Stephen McCranie at malandchad.com.

Update 9/3/10 - Time's up! Stephen has chosen the winner. Congratulations to Sheepishlion who won!

Niagara Falls is made up of three waterfalls from the Niagara River. In 1969, the US Army Corps of Engineers stopped the flow of water over one of them, American Falls, to study the stability of the rock underneath. For six months, tourists could walk over the rock bed where the falls had been. Ultimately, the Corps decided that stabilizing the rock bed would not be worth the expense.

Link -via the Presurfer

(Image credit: Flickr user Russ Glasson)

Previously: The falls also stopped flowing in 1848 for natural reasons, and froze completely over in 1911.

We have all encountered the common misconception that Columbus' crew was afraid of sailing off the edge of the earth, as if the explorer's view of a round world were something new.

Columbus' crew may have been fearful and unruly, but not because of any fear of an edge to the earth.  They were concerned because they were sailing south - into the "torrid zone" - where they thought the heat might evaporate the water to render the seas too shallow for their ships.  They also may have been concerned that a westward voyage to reach the Indies was impossible because they didn't have enough food and water to cover such a distance (and they were correct - they didn't have enough provisions for a voyage to Asia and would in fact have died had they not bumped into the Americas).

Link

New York restaurant Diablo Royale Este serves a dessert called The Hopsicle Experience. It's a frozen can of beer on a stick!

Now, the thing about the hopsicle is that it looks like your standard can of Tecate: Red. Cylindrical. Icy cold. Except the barman-witchdoctors at Diablo have taken the “icy” bit quite literally, injecting the beer with simple syrup and lime juice, jamming a wooden stick into the hole of the can and then putting it in the freezer. For four days.

The result is a genuine beer popsicle, which the bartender must saw in half with a serrated steak knife (or samurai sword) to open. Then it’s up to you to push the wooden stick upward to dispense the hopsicle in true Push Pop style, and decide if you want your savory sweet frozen joyride bathed in tequila as well (note: you want this).

Could you recreate this at home? Be sure whoever is wielding the sword is completely sober! Link -via Rue the Day

Want ads are sometimes hard to figure out because they don't give enough information. This one, however, is confounding because it gives a lot of information! It is supposedly looking for a piano accompanist for a singing tour. The requirements are very specific.

Some of my singing engagements take place late at night, in the homes of strangers, without audiences or music, and may appear to be elaborate art or jewel heists. For engagements like this, the accompanist may be called on to pick locks, crack safes, break windows silently and jump over large, sometimes barb-wire topped fences with me riding piggy-back at all times.

Accompanist must possess a thorough knowledge of the canine psyche in order to tame six to eight guard dogs simultaneously and then retrain them to attack their masters in under two minutes. Ideally, to keep everything music-themed, the taming/re-training would be done with a flute.

Proof of diplomatic immunity is a plus. See the whole thing at McSweeney's. http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2010/8/26adams.html -via Nag on the Lake

(Image credit: Flickr user alexanderward12)

A 97-year-old woman owes her life to her cat Tiger. Sophie Thomas of Clare County, Michigan was caring for her lawn when a pack of dogs approached.

Thomas says, “All of a sudden these four pitbulls came marching in and they surrounded me. They kept going around and around. One of them kind of lunged for me and I hit him on the head and he backed off. Then another came towards me and I was scared stiff. I gave him a wack. All of a sudden, my cat jumped in the middle of it."

The cat ran towards the garage and the dogs chased after giving Ms. Thomas just enough time to run inside. Fearing the worse for her pet, she waited, and washed her wounds in the sink. That’s when she spotted Tiger at the door. Thinking back she says she owes the cat her life.

Thomas says, "I always thank god that my cat came because she was the one that really helped me out."

Ms. Thomas suffered minor injuries. The dogs are in quarantine for ten days. Link (with video) -via Arbroath

Stacy Conradt makes cupcakes, and is planning to experiment with new styles and flavors.

Key Lime: vanilla cake with key lime frosting rolled in graham cracker crumbs.Captain Crunch: crush the cereal into the flour and the frosting.

Whopper: vanilla cake with malt powder; chocolate frosting with crushed Whopper candy.

Mochaccino: Vanilla cake with chocolate frosting that has coffee granules in it. Or maybe just coffee flavoring, topped with a coffee bean.

Chicken and Waffles: waffle-flavored cupcake with maple-flavored frosting with a little piece of friend chicken on top. Must. Try. This.

She has a much longer list of proposed cupcakes. Which ones do you think will be a hit? Link

Wouldn't you love to know someone like the inventors in our movies and books -someone who can come up with gadgets, materials, and machines to solve your problems? Of course, in some stories inventors cause the problem themselves! Gizmodo takes a look at these geniuses from movies, TV, and literature and why we love them. My vote goes to Doc Brown from Back to the Future, who invented

The flux capacitor, the core component of a machine that allowed Brown to travel through time. Brown came up with the idea of the capacitor on November 5, 1955, and worked tirelessly for the next 30 years developing it into a working time machine. The capacitor, which requires 1.21 Gigawatts of electrical power to function, was first implemented in a customized DeLorean and later, or maybe earlier?, in a 19th century train.

Link

GORILLA

"First used in a Greek translation of 5th century BC Carthaginian explorer Hanno's account of a voyage to West Africa. He reported encountering a tribe of wild hairy people, whose females were, according to a local interpreter, called gorillas. In 1847 the American missionary and scientist Thomas Savage adopted the word as the species name of the great ape and by the 1850s it had passed into general use." (From Dictionary of Word Origins, by John Ayto)

FERRET

(Image credit: Flickr user Stacy Lynn Baum)

"Ferret comes from the Latin furritus, for 'little thief,' which probably alludes to the fact that ferrets, which are related to pole cats, like to steal hens' eggs. Its name also developed into a verb, to ferret out, meaning 'to dig out or bring something to light.'" (From Cool Cats, Top Dogs, and Other Beastly Expressions, by Christine Ammer)

SKUNK

"Because the little striped animal could squirt his foul yellow spray up to 12 feet, American Indians called him segankw, or segonku, the Algonquin dialect word meaning simply 'he who squirts'. Early pioneers corrupted the hard-to-pronounce Algonquin word to skunk, and that way it has remained ever since." (From Animal Crackers, by Robert Hendrickson)

HOUND

"Before the Norman conquest of England, French hunters bred a keen-nosed dog that they called the St. Hubert. One of their rulers, William, took a pack to England and hunted deer-following the dogs on foot. Saxons had never before seen a dog fierce enough to seize its prey, so they named William's animals hunts, meaning 'seizure'. Altered over time to hound, it was long applied to all hunting dogs. Then the meaning narrowed to stand for breeds that follow their quarry by scent." (From Why You Say It, by Webb Garrison)

LEOPARD

(Image source: The Medieval Bestiary)

"It was once wrongly believed that the leopard was a cross between a 'leo' (a lion) and a 'pard' (a white panther)-hence the name 'leopard.'" (From Why Do We Say It?, by Nigel Rees)

PYTHON

"According to Greek legend, the god Apollo's earliest adventure was the single-handed slaying of Python, a flame-breathing dragon who blocked his way to Pytho (now Delphi), the site he had chosen for an oracle. From the name of this monster derives the name of the large snake of Asia, Africa, and Australia, the python." (From Thou Improper, Thou Uncommon Noun, by Willard R. Espy)

CARDINAL

"One would think that such an attractive creature would have given its name to many things, but in fact it is the other way around. The bird's name comes from the red-robed official of the Roman Catholic Church, who in turn was named for being so important-that is, from the adjective cardinal, from the Latin cardo, meaning 'hinge' or 'pivot'. Anything cardinal was so important that events depended (hinged or pivoted) on it." (From It's Raining Cats and Dogs, by Christine Ammer)

MOOSE

"Captain John Smith, one of the original leaders at Jamestown, wrote accounts of the colony and life in Virginia, in which he defined the creatures as Moos, a beast bigger than a stagge. Moos was from Natick (Indian) dialect and probably derived from moosu, 'he trims, he shaves,' a reference to the way the animal rips the bark and lower branches from trees while feeding." (From The Chronology of Words and Phrases, by Linda and Roger Flavell)

FLAMINGO

(Image credit: Flickr user Luis Argerich )

"This long-legged pink wading bird is named for the people of Flanders, the Flemings, as they were called. Flemings were widely known for their lively personalities, their flushed complexions, and their love of bright clothing. Spaniard explorers in the New World thought it was a great joke naming the bird flamingo, which means 'a Fleming' in Spanish." (From Facts on File Encyclopedia of Words and Phrase Origins, by Robert Hendrickson)

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The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John's Unstoppable Bathroom Reader.

Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts.

If you like Neatorama, you'll love the Bathroom Reader Institute's books - go ahead and check 'em out!

Even though I remind you of all our exclusive articles every weekend, there are times when you might say, "I wonder what Neatorama did before I started reading it." Or you might say, "Hey, Neatorama did an article on that way back when -let me find it!" To make that easy for you, we have updated and revamped our "best of" page so you can browse by year and month and by pictures. Take a look!

This week, we welcomed a new collaboration with the magazine Annals of Improbable Research by posting a classic article called How To Write A Scientific Paper.

From Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, we got The Biggest Cult Movie of All Time. If you don't know what movie that is, you obviously missed the article!

We saw how four fast food companies changed logos without changing their recognition factor in The Evolution of Fast Food Logos.

NeatoBambino scored an interview with Dallas Clayton, author of An Awesome Book and gave away three copies of the children's book.

David Israel interviewed Yael Hersonski about her critically acclaimed debut A Film Unfinished. The interview and clips from the movie are in the post Nazi Propaganda Footage Discovered.

Mental-floss gave us fun facts about walruses in I Am the Walrus.

Steven Johnson has some far-out ideas to share about Cocooning and Hiding at Home.

This week we said goodbye to NeatoGeek. It was fun while it lasted. The good news is that John Farrier will continue to contribute his geeky sci-fi items here at the main blog. Meanwhile, you can check out the many items previously posted at NeatoGeek.

Congratulations to schm3cky, who won a t-shirt from the NeatoShop in Mal and Chad's Fill in the Bubble Frenzy! See the post for his clever speech bubble line.

A spur-of-the-moment weekend competition asked you to caption the video entitled Birthday Cat is Unimpressed. Congratulations to to Nick who won a t-shirt from the NeatoShop with this gem: “I told them all i wanted was a cheezburger.”

Neatorama teamed up with mental_floss for another How Did You Know? contest which began Tuesday with the contest details. We already have some winners, but the contest won't end until the ultimate challenge is presented and solved on Monday, so watch for that coming up at mental_floss!

Over at Facebook, David runs random contests where you can win more prizes from Neatorama, like this one that only required you to pick a shirt. Just one more reason you'll want to keep up with our social networking feed, at Facebook and a Twitter as well.

Twenty-seven-year-old Johno Lee, a British veteran of the war in Afghanistan, applied for and was denied a disabled parking permit three times. Meanwhile, he racked up £800 in fines for parking in reserved spots so he could unload his wheelchair.

Lance-corporal Lee, from Coddington, said when he first applied to Nottinghamshire County Council for a blue badge he was advised he was young and ‘may get better.’

His right leg was amputated below the knee after he was caught up in an explosion in Helmand Province in 2008.

He said: “I replied that they possibly didn’t quite understand the situation and that I thought it unlikely that my leg would grow back.

After the local newspaper the Newark Advertiser heard of his story, a reporter contacted officials who are now looking into the matter. The fines already levied against Lee have been rescinded. Link -via Arbroath

A woman traveling from Thailand to Iran checked a bag before boarding her flight in Bangkok. When the bag was scanned, the x-ray images showed something suspicious. Inside the bag of stuffed toy tigers was one eight-week-old live tiger cub!

Officers from the Livestock Development Department and the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department were then called in to open the bag for inspection and discovered the tranquilized cub.

Investigations are underway to determine if the cub was wild caught or captive-bred, where it came from and the suspect’s intended final destination.

The cub is being cared for at the Rescue Center of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation. DNA samples will be sent to the tiger enclosure at Khaopratab Wildlife Rescue Center in Ratchaburi Province, to determine which subspecies the cub belongs to, which will help determine its origin.

Link -via Wired

(Image credit: Sulma Warne/TRAFFIC)

See also: Ten Weird Items People Tried to Smuggle

(YouTube link)

Shine a laser through a drop of water and you can project the image of its flora and fauna on your wall or ceiling. Really. The cat sure enjoyed it!

After witnessing the image of a mosquito in a laser beam outside, I decided to investigate the phenomenon further. I started by locating scuzzy water. Ponds lacking, I decided to take water out of the bowl of my 6 year old spider plant. I then filled a syringe and hung it above a laser so that a drop of water, almost ready to fall, was in the beam path. Below is the incredibly complex apparatus involving a book, sticky-tac, a random bottle, a 250mW laser, and a syringe.

See the setup described in the quote at Teravolt. Link -via reddit

The original link, which has currently blown its bandwidth.

The toilet is one of those things we take for granted, until it breaks down or we go somewhere without them. How did our modern comfort system come about? Toilet plumbing is older than you think!

Ancient cultures were surprisingly adept at moving water around in a way that kept people from having to walk through pools of their own feces. (That was really more of a Medieval European thing.) Cultures as far back as 3000 BC were flushing away their problems—so who you callin' primitive? Members of the Harrappa civilization in what is now India had toilets in their homes that drained into subterranean clay chambers. The residents of Skara Brae, a 31st century BC settlement in what's now Scotland, were even clever enough to use a draining system that exploited a nearby river to automatically sweep out their dirty business.

None of these systems were anything like the flush toilet -that came later. Read all about it at Gizmodo. Link

(Image credit: Sam Spratt)