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

Have any of you been to the town of Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! lately? It's in Quebec. Link

Gaspare Tagliacozzi, professor of surgery at the University of Bologna in Italy, published a book titled De Curtorum Chirurgia Per Insitionem (The Surgery of Defects by Implantations) in 1597. It describes procedures used to repair faces damaged by war -in other words, plastic surgery.

The tome, which is written in Latin, is illustrated with diagrams, including the rhinoplasty, in which the patient's nose was attached to a flap of skin from his upper arm.

In one plate, the patient is seen in bed with his forearm attached to his head and a flap of skin from his bicep region stuck onto his nose.

The book tells how he stayed like that for about three weeks until the skin from his arm had attached itself properly.

After a further two weeks the flap of skin was shaped so it resembled a nose and the process was complete.

After Tagliacozzi's death, the procedures were forgotten in Europe, probably because of the disapproval of religious authorities. A rare copy of the book was recently sold for £11,000 -to a plastic surgeon. Link -via TYWKIWDBI

Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the internet. – @AdviceToWriters

Ain't that the truth! And it's a occupational hazard when your job is to offer internet distractions to everyone. This Twaggie was inspired by @AdviceToWriters. Like all Twaggies, it is available in print or t-shirt form. Link