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Oh no, this is nothing about a dog pulling a sled. This little guy just thinks it's his turn to ride! -via I Am Bored

Herschel Geguzin was born in Lithuania, but he eventually became Prince Michael Alexandrovitch Dmitry Obolensky Romanoff, the toast of Hollywood. His extensive travels, friendships, and brushes with the law left him with enough experiences to pull the wool over the eyes of many wealthy Americans. However, many others saw through him or found out about his masquerade, and didn't mind because he was so entertaining! Actor David Niven remembered the prince:

Niven, who was himself a man of preternatural charm and roguish tendencies, recognised a kindred spirit, and his account of Mike is notable for its penetrating insights. For Niven, the root of Prince’s unquestionable likeability was a humorous talent for the not-quite-plausible improvisation, the half-truth and the flamboyant gesture. When the British actor left Hollywood for Britain in 1939 to fight Hitler, Mike delighted in discussing his own alleged experiences of war, making him a present of a hand-knitted balaclava helmet (“Saved me near St Petersburg, old boy”) and a large blue and white spotted scarf with a burn in the centre (“mustard gas… Cambrai… silk is the only thing against it.”) The balaclava helmet Niven lost, but the scarf he kept long enough to consult a laundress about the mysterious mark of mustard gas it bore. “She told me that careless ironing was responsible for the burn.” [Niven p.154]

Eventually Romanov went legit and opened a restaurant in Beverly Hills that catered to his famous friends, many of whom invested in the business. How Romanoff achieved such acclaim is a fascinating story. Link

by Catherine Maloney, Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut, Sarah J. Lichtblau, University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois Nadya Karpook, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida Carolyn Chou, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Anthony Arena-DeRosa, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts



A feline subject reacts to a photograph of a man with a full dark semicircular beard.

Abstract

Cats were exposed to photographs of bearded men. The beards were of various sizes, shapes, and styles. The cats' responses were recorded and analyzed.

Findings of Prior Investigators

Boone (1958) found inconclusive results in studying feline reactions to clean-shaven men. O'Connor and Brynner (1990) found inconclusive results in studying feline reactions to shaven heads. Quant (1965) found inconclusive results in studying feline reactions to bangs. Seuss (1955) found inconclusive results in studying feline reactions to hats. Ciccone (1986) found inconclusive results in studying feline reactions to hairy legs. Other related studies (Smith/Brothers 1972, Conroy 1987, Schwartzenegger 1983) have since been retracted because the investigators were not able to reproduce their results.

Norquist (1988) performed a series of experiments in which cats were exposed to photographs of Robert Bork[1] (not pictured here), a man whose beard is confined largely to the underside of the jaw. After viewing the Bork photograph, 26% of the cats exhibited paralysis of the legs and body, including the neck. An additional 31% of the cats exposed to the Bork photograph showed other types of severe neurological and/or pulmocardial distress and/or exhibited extremely violent behavior. Because of this, we did not include a photograph of this type of bearded man in our study.

by Emeritus Professor Sam Shuster, MD, PhD, FRCP Consultant, Dept of Dermatology, University of East Anglia, U.K.

This piece of work presented itself by accident. As a retired clinical scientist, I waste time worrying about problems I’ve opened and left unclosed. One such is stretch marks,1 and the body bulk that produces them. Would body builders carry some of the answers? These massive men downloaded with sylph-like ease, but then ousted the original problem with a bigger one, albeit of smaller amplitude: it was immediately and inescapably obvious that the bodybuilder’s crutch was mostly apparent by its absence – in short, bodybuilders appeared to have small balls.

Platitudes are what we learn from experience: there are lies, damned lies and clinical impressions, and a clinical hunch is poor evidence of its reality; I needed hard evidence. I needed to see body builders, but the responses, some of which were polite, made it clear that my study would have to be indirect. Fortunately, research is easier when its limits are defined: the trick was going to be how to measure changes in the male genital trio, the “meat and two veg” of this scientific meal, when it is covered and presented as an image.  

Materials and Methods

It's time for our giveaway collaboration with the always amusing What Is It? Blog! Can you tell us what this object is?

Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you'd like. Post no URLs or weblinks, as doing so will forfeit your entry. Two winners: the first correct guess and the funniest (albeit ultimately wrong) guess will win T-shirt from the NeatoShop.

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?

For more clues, check out the What Is It? Blog. Good luck!

Update: Vince had the right answer: the device is to hold logs while they are cut! Kelly gets the funniest answer prize for "The jawbone of a Domokun." She was the first of many to see a Domo-kun in this device. Both win t-shirts from the NeatoShop!

It's time once again for the Fill in the Bubble Frenzy with boy genius Mal and his talking dog Chad! What goes in this empty speech bubble? Tell us and you might 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. Have fun and good luck!

Update: Mysfyt had the winning line: "Avast, I be Peg-eye the pirate." and wins a T-shirt from the NeatoShop!

(YouTube link)

Hear New Year greetings in languages used all over the world. WojtekNYC assembled this with help from friends at Columbia University and the International House. If you can contribute any translation as to what was said, please leave them in the comments. -via The High Definite

BitLit, Neatorama's fiction blog, is posting a new story! Chapter one of Wizard Constable by Tom Van Natta is now online.

Jorac’s an ordinary city constable in the city of Vaggert; he’s allergic to magic but still takes the job of Wizard Constable, working for the city’s overbearing, officious wizards. He encounters cutthroats, slavers, poison frogs, crazed wizards, hidden beauty, and much more - this is not stereotypical “epic fantasy”, it’s a fast-paced, fun adventure story.

You can bookmark the index for this individual book so you can find all of the chapters as they are posted. Link

Also at BitLit:

(YouTube link)

The Shoe House in Hellam, Pennsylvania was built in 1948 by shoe salesman Colonel Mahlon M. Haines, who styled himself as "the Shoe Wizard". Not only is the house shaped like a shoe, but each window has stained glass images of shoes! Read about the building's history at Roadside America. Link -Thanks, Greg Ross!

Although the Lunar New Year doesn't begin until February third, 2011 will be the Year of the Rabbit. Pink Tentacle welcomed the year by posting several beautiful antique bunny illustrations from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The rabbit shown dates from 1903. Link -via Right Brain Terrain

The biggest dinosaur discoveries of the year include dinosauromorphs, or dinosaur precursors, plus dinosaur diets, dino nurseries, and dinosaur colors. Shown is the feathered dinosaur Anchiornis, whose colors were determined by feather fossils. Check out the entire list, with links to further reading, at Smithsonian. Link -via The Dystenium Science Daily

(Image credit: Michael DiGiorgio)

Stay warm and scare children on the slopes with this crocheted Cthulhu ski hat from Etsy seller CraftyPA! There is an opening for your mouth under the tentacles. Available in red, too! Link -via Buzzfeed

Scout checked out Rye Playland, the amusement park where Tom Hanks found the Zoltar machine in the movie Big. However, Zoltar has been replaced by another machine that can make you big.



There are more pictures of the park as it appears now at Scouting New York. Link -via The Daily What

This Italian photo site documents the fashions of the 1960s and '70s -miniskirts, bellbottoms, platform shoes, hot pants, go-go boots, and that hair! You'll see some famous faces among the models. Elements of these styles come back every once in a while, but the total look of those days of fashion will never be duplicated. Link -via Metafilter

The Alcowebizer is a generator that simulates what a website would look like if you were under the influence of alcohol. Enter the address of a website, then you can adjust the look according to your blood-alcohol level. At the first level, Neatorama just looks like it has a few typos -which is not at all surprising. Set it further along, and colors and strange fonts appear. The screenshot here (of this post) is only about half as far as you can take the Alcowebizer. Beware -if you set it far enough, there will be music. Link -via Nag on the Lake