New York illustrator Christoph Niemann took a flight from New York to Berlin and documented the absurdities of airline travel in pictures in his blog at The New York Times. I honestly love the idea of a "delete neighbor" button. Link
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
New York illustrator Christoph Niemann took a flight from New York to Berlin and documented the absurdities of airline travel in pictures in his blog at The New York Times. I honestly love the idea of a "delete neighbor" button. Link
Urban explorer Kyle Merriman, who brought us pictures of Nara Dreamland, has a new collection of photographs from an abandoned hospital in Tainan, Taiwan.
As we entered it was clear we weren’t the first visitors it had received. Prescription drugs, lay scattered across tables and floors, while others remained unopened. Broken syringes crunched underfoot and bottles of formaldehyde still kept their mysterious contents. The wind followed us inside, slamming random doors and causing the peeling wallpaper to dance. It was a spooky place to say the least.
http://www.brandknewme.com/?p=958
NeatoBambino has the new Decipher the Doodle contest up! Take a look at a drawing from Alex and Tiffany's four-year-old, and see if you can figure out what she is trying to illustrate. The commenter with most correct answer and another with the funniest answer will each win a prize (worth $25 or less) of their choice from the NeatoShop. Just be sure to state your preferred prize with your comment. This illustration is only a small detail of the doodle. Good luck! Link
While you're at NeatoBambino, take some time to join in the discussion about Pediatricians and their Questions. Link
While you're at NeatoBambino, take some time to join in the discussion about Pediatricians and their Questions. Link
Thailand has "panda fever", much like the panda mania that swept the US a few years ago. But American zoos never painted other animals to look like pandas! Thailand's Chiang Mai Zoo has a pair of pandas on loan from China who produced a baby named Lin Ping. The birth doubled the zoo's attendance and revenues, causing other zoos to jump on the panda bandwagon.
Link -via Dark Roasted Blend
(Image credit: James Hookway/The Wall Street Journal)
Previously at Neatorama: Panda-painted Elephants
At several sites across the country, commercial aquariums and animal parks are painting their animals in panda colors to keep up visitor numbers in the face of tougher competition -- as well as educate people about the threats elephants and crocodiles face in the wild.
Mr. Kamla, a 25-year-old crocodile-handler, fielded a barrage of questions from schoolchildren recently at Buengchawark Underwater Sea Paradise as he and a colleague painted a three-month-old Siamese crocodile in panda colors.
"They're an endangered species, too, like the panda, so we hope some of our knowledge will trickle down," Mr. Kamla says.
Prasit Vejprasit, an administrator at the aquarium, says busloads of schoolchildren -- the mainstay of the aquarium's business -- continue coming to the site, a couple of hours' travel northwest of Bangkok, encouraged in large part by the panda-colored crocs. He says teachers often call to confirm the aquarium is still painting crocodiles before sending their classes.
The children seem to enjoy the novelty. "Most crocodiles are scary but this one is cute," says Siripob Dara, 9 years old, before he asks Mr. Kamla how long it can grow and what it eats.
Link -via Dark Roasted Blend
(Image credit: James Hookway/The Wall Street Journal)
Previously at Neatorama: Panda-painted Elephants
The wooden shoe is symbolic of the Dutch for many of us, but how did they come about, and why? The shoes have several advantages, including one illustrated by a Jackie Chan video in this post at Rue the Day. Link
See lots of pictures of cats in their best finery, plus a link to outtakes from the cat fashion show last week at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City. The occasion was the 15th birthday of the official hotel cat Matilda. Link -via Nag on the Lake
(Image credit: Katie Sokoler/Gothamist)
If you or your children are tired of supermarket coloring books and their generic designs, or if you yourself like to doodle with color, try something a little more interesting. Illustrator Carlton Hibbert has a collection of artistic patterns that you can download, print, and color. Quite a few artists and illustrators have contributed to the collection, and all patterns are licensed under Creative Commons, which means you can use them freely. Link
Der Spiegel has an image gallery of "Trummerfrauen," or "rubble women" who were charged by the occupying Allies with cleaning up the wreckage of German cities bombed during World War II. There weren't enough German men left to do the job, and the women had to use their bare hands and whatever equipment they could round up on their own. The job still took years. Recovered materials were sorted to be reused. Link -via TYWKIWDBI
This week we welcomed a new contributor and a new contest -all in one! Mal and Chad's Fill in the Bubble Frenzy is a caption contest using custom-drawn panels by comic artist Stephen McCranie, the creator of the webcomic Mal and Chad. Congratulations to the first winner of the new contest, Wrexlabs!
"You Think I'm Mad, Don't You?" from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader gave us the lowdown on the mad scientists portrayed in ten recommended films.
From mental_floss magazine, we had 6 Common Baby Names that Might Hurt You. They didn't do so well for others.
Over at NeatoBambino, Tiffany has some tips for packing your preschooler's backpack, in case you are sending your baby off to school for the first time.
This week's post A Non-Math Look at Math Shapes is the requested followup to A Non-Math Look at Math Objects from a couple of weeks ago. I suppose you think it's funny to put a non-math person through this.
A post at NeatoGeek, Jonathan Archer, Badass, contains some spoilers if you haven't seen the entire TV series Enterprise. However, the comment thread turned into a debate about the merits of the last Star Trek series.
The latest acquisition in the Museum of Possibilities is Might Toilets Be Placed Anywhere in The Home?
We'd like to welcome painter Michelle Banks to the Art Blog. Check out her gallery of heart rhythms, bacteria, and dividing cells rendered in beautiful watercolors.
Congratulations to marcintosh who won a t-shirt from the NeatoShop in this week's NeatoGeek Caption Contest. See the winning caption at the link.
The winner of the What Is It? competition this week was Augie. Congrats!
For more Neatorama fun, check out our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter! They both have extra stuff you won't see on the blogs.
"You Think I'm Mad, Don't You?" from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader gave us the lowdown on the mad scientists portrayed in ten recommended films.
From mental_floss magazine, we had 6 Common Baby Names that Might Hurt You. They didn't do so well for others.
Over at NeatoBambino, Tiffany has some tips for packing your preschooler's backpack, in case you are sending your baby off to school for the first time.
This week's post A Non-Math Look at Math Shapes is the requested followup to A Non-Math Look at Math Objects from a couple of weeks ago. I suppose you think it's funny to put a non-math person through this.
A post at NeatoGeek, Jonathan Archer, Badass, contains some spoilers if you haven't seen the entire TV series Enterprise. However, the comment thread turned into a debate about the merits of the last Star Trek series.
The latest acquisition in the Museum of Possibilities is Might Toilets Be Placed Anywhere in The Home?
We'd like to welcome painter Michelle Banks to the Art Blog. Check out her gallery of heart rhythms, bacteria, and dividing cells rendered in beautiful watercolors.
Congratulations to marcintosh who won a t-shirt from the NeatoShop in this week's NeatoGeek Caption Contest. See the winning caption at the link.
The winner of the What Is It? competition this week was Augie. Congrats!
For more Neatorama fun, check out our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter! They both have extra stuff you won't see on the blogs.
This music video relates the history of the Soviet Union with a clever song set to the Tetris theme (Korobeiniki), both the music and the game itself. Music by Pig With The Face Of A Boy. Honestly, it's awesome. Link
1. Naaktgeboren
When Napoleon seized the Netherlands in 1810, he demanded that all Dutchmen take last names, just as the French had done decades prior. Problem was, the Dutch had lived full and happy lives with single names, so they took absurd surnames in a show of spirited defiance. These included Naaktgeboren (born naked), Spring int Veld (jump in the field), and Piest (pisses). Sadly for their descendants, Napoleon's last-name trend stuck, and all of these remain perfectly normal Dutch names today.
2. Batman
Venezuelans are among the world's most creative namers, In fact, according to their own government, they're too creative. In September 2007, after hearing about babies named Superman or Batman, state authorities urged parents to pick their names from an approved list of 100 common Spanish monikers. Those conventional names (such as Juanita and Miguel) quickly acquired a patrician ring, ironically giving rise to more novel names, like Hochiminh (after the Vietnamese guerilla) ad Eisenhower (after the president). There are also at least 60 Venezuelans with the first name Hitler.
3. Eclipse Glasses
4. Vladimir Ashkenazy
The people of Iceland take their names very seriously. The country permit no one-not even immigrants-to take or keep foreign surnames. So what happened when esteemed Russian maestro Vladimir Ashkenazy asked to become an Icelandic citizen? Well, the government finally decided to make an exception. Vladimir Ashkenazy is now on the short list of approved Icelandic names.
5. Yazid
Imam Husayn ibn Ali is one of the holiest figure of the Shi'ite Muslim faith. In the 7th century CE, he lost his head on the order of the Sunni caliph, Yazid, and the decapitation initiated the biggest schism in Islamic history. While the name Yazid remains common among Sunnis, it is disdained throughout the Shi'ite world. The stigmas attached to it is equivalent to naming one's son Stalin or Hitler. Speaking of which...
6. Adolf
Memories of death camps and fascism have kept parents from christening their kids Adolf for quite some time. But one unlucky youngster acquired the name in 1949. He was the son of William Patrick Hitler-the dictator's nephew, who moved to America in the 1930s to fight against his uncle. It isn't clear why William preserved the name, but his four sons (including Alexander Adolf Hitler, now 57) made a pact to never have children in an effort to stunt der Fuehrer's family tree at its branches.
Don't forget to feed your brain by subscribing to the magazine and visiting mental_floss' extremely entertaining website and blog today!
When Napoleon seized the Netherlands in 1810, he demanded that all Dutchmen take last names, just as the French had done decades prior. Problem was, the Dutch had lived full and happy lives with single names, so they took absurd surnames in a show of spirited defiance. These included Naaktgeboren (born naked), Spring int Veld (jump in the field), and Piest (pisses). Sadly for their descendants, Napoleon's last-name trend stuck, and all of these remain perfectly normal Dutch names today.
2. Batman
Venezuelans are among the world's most creative namers, In fact, according to their own government, they're too creative. In September 2007, after hearing about babies named Superman or Batman, state authorities urged parents to pick their names from an approved list of 100 common Spanish monikers. Those conventional names (such as Juanita and Miguel) quickly acquired a patrician ring, ironically giving rise to more novel names, like Hochiminh (after the Vietnamese guerilla) ad Eisenhower (after the president). There are also at least 60 Venezuelans with the first name Hitler.
3. Eclipse Glasses
(Image source: Eclipsers)
In June 2001, a total solar eclipse was about to cross southern Africa. To prepare, the Zimbabwean and Zambian media began a massive astronomy education campaign focused on warning people not to stare at the Sun. Apparently, the campaign worked. The locals took a real liking to the vocabulary, and today, the birth registries are filled with names like Eclipse Glasses Banda, Totality Zhou, and Annular Mchombo.4. Vladimir Ashkenazy
The people of Iceland take their names very seriously. The country permit no one-not even immigrants-to take or keep foreign surnames. So what happened when esteemed Russian maestro Vladimir Ashkenazy asked to become an Icelandic citizen? Well, the government finally decided to make an exception. Vladimir Ashkenazy is now on the short list of approved Icelandic names.
5. Yazid
Imam Husayn ibn Ali is one of the holiest figure of the Shi'ite Muslim faith. In the 7th century CE, he lost his head on the order of the Sunni caliph, Yazid, and the decapitation initiated the biggest schism in Islamic history. While the name Yazid remains common among Sunnis, it is disdained throughout the Shi'ite world. The stigmas attached to it is equivalent to naming one's son Stalin or Hitler. Speaking of which...
6. Adolf
Memories of death camps and fascism have kept parents from christening their kids Adolf for quite some time. But one unlucky youngster acquired the name in 1949. He was the son of William Patrick Hitler-the dictator's nephew, who moved to America in the 1930s to fight against his uncle. It isn't clear why William preserved the name, but his four sons (including Alexander Adolf Hitler, now 57) made a pact to never have children in an effort to stunt der Fuehrer's family tree at its branches.
_____________________
The article above, written by Graeme Wood, appeared in Scatterbrained section of the Mar - Apr 2008 issue of mental_floss magazine (the excellent "The Future of Sex" issue!). It is reprinted here with permission.Don't forget to feed your brain by subscribing to the magazine and visiting mental_floss' extremely entertaining website and blog today!
We'd like to welcome the boy genius Mal and his talking dog Chad here to Neatorama to host another caption contest. As the banner says, if you can think up a winning caption to go in the empty speech bubble, you'll 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 caption submission in the comments. Just make sure your caption is kid friendly and appropriate. Need some inspiration? Tune in to Mal and Chad's comic strip adventures at malandchad.com.
Update 8/13/10 - Stephen McCranie of Mal and Chad has picked the winner. Congratulations to WrexLabs who won with "Who is ANDY?"
CarlyB is obsessed with animals, especially those animals that don't get a lot of press. So she started the blog Featured Creature, which looks at animals you might not know already. One is the adorable spotted cuscus pictured.
When first discovered, scientists believed that this was a kind of monkey due to its prosimian-like movements through the tropical rain forest canopy. However, it is actually the largest possum on Earth, as well as one of the cutest creatures on Earth if I do say so myself. Males are always spotted but females are white or grey with a woolly coat (but no spots).
See the cuscus in action at the post. Link
(YouTube link)
This old car was bought sight unseen off Craigslist because it was cheap. I think someone many years ago tried to make this resemble another famous car. What do you think? -via Cynical-C
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