Waylon and his wife sampled quite a few of the less prominent nightspots on their recent trip to Cambodia, and wrote up reviews of each. While some have intriguing names such as the Corruption Bar, the G'Day Mate Bar, and the Any Club, the real fun is in what's inside. One place doesn't like pictures taken inside and the authors made a hasty getaway. Another has an owner who won't talk to you. Another has a sign posted prohibiting cameras, soldiers, bombs, guns, shorts, slippers, and dogs. The best review went to the Happy Man Bar.
Air conditioning: YES. Cold beer: YES. Adorably lovely waitresses: YES. Proprietor doesn't own a shotgun: YES.
If you are planning a trip to Cambodia, this may be an invaluable resource. However, there are places in the US where you can find a similar variety of taverns. Don't ask me how I know. Link
You must admit it's a name to remember: Young Boozer III. Boozer won the race for Alabama state treasurer, despite a rash of campaign sign thefts early in the campaign. It appears that college students wanted the signs for their dorms and frat houses. Boozer's campaign manager Glenda Allred said there were still signs left to be picked up after the election.
Allred said the name, and the signs, have led to some odd requests, particularly people from out of state who requested signs even though they had no say in the election.
One request came from a journalist with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. "He came down to cover the BP oil spill and saw the sign as he was going down the interstate," Allred said. "He called saying how he read about the candidate, saw the website and was following the race."
The future value of the signs is uncertain. Link -via Arbroath
Parents experience unbelievable joy at many of their baby's accomplishments -the first smile, the first step, the first words. There are also many not-so-joyful firsts, as you'll see in this list at NeatoBambino.
The first time they spit up on a friend who doesn’t have children. I’m convinced this is why some of my friends are still childless. Really, I am so sorry.
The first time your newborn son pees in your face. Yes, it really does happen. I finally got wise and started covering him up with a wash cloth while changing his diaper.
The first time they have massive diaper failure. I call these poo-splosions. They typically occur when you are in a hurry, you have placed them in your favorite little outfit, or have somehow forgotten a change of clothes.
The First time they put something really gross in their mouth. Babies are like ninjas. They have stealth reflexes. They can grab and lick the bottom of a shoe faster than you can scream “NO!”
Experienced parents will laugh; others may run screaming after reading this list. You are invited to add your experiences in the comments. http://www.neatorama.com/neatobambino/2010/11/06/20-awful-firsts-you-have-to-look-forward-to-with-your-new-baby/
Got an odd glove? Make it into a cute little squirrel, with directions from Tokyo crafter Miyako Kanamori reprinted from her book Happy Gloves! Link -via Nag on the Lake
Johnston Atoll is a US territory covering about 50 square miles of islands in the remote Pacific Ocean. From 1934 to 2003, it was under the control of the US Navy and was used as launch site for nuclear testing and super-secret experimental aircraft and who knows what else. The base was abandoned when the atoll was turned over to the US Fish and Wildlife Service. See photographs from various phases of the base's history at Urban Ghost Media. http://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/2010/04/isolated-and-abandoned-military-airbase-johnston-atoll/
Neatorama author Jill Harness collected the funniest slogans from baby shirts that parents inflict on their little darlings. This one is a natural, after her tribute to president Roosevelt a couple of weeks ago. See them all in this post at Oddee. Some text may be NSFW. Link
Hamish Mowatt of South Ronaldsay, one of the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland, unearthed a Neolithic tomb in his backyard garden. Now archaeologists are scrambling to document and preserve the 5,000 year old grave site.
Mr Mowatt said he had always wondered what lay under an 8ft stone in the garden and eventually curiosity got the better of him.
He dug a small hole close to the stone to see how thick it was. He then managed to get a thin wire pushed under the stone and confirmed there was definitely a space underneath. While doing this, a finger-hole size appeared in the earth to his right. This allowed him to push the wire in — to a depth of three feet.
By carefully removing a small area of earth and two stones, Mr Mowatt could see a rock face. Shining a torch inside, he saw a chamber with about nine inches of water lying in the bottom.
Mr Mowatt added: "I have an underwater camera, so I got it in through the hole and the monitor rigged up. On the screen, I could see the rock face clearly, but when I went further I could clearly see what I thought was a white skull, with two eye sockets, looking back at me."
So far, three skulls are visible in the stone chamber, which is filling up with water. Experts think there might be multiple connected chambers on the site. http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/bankstomb2010.htm -via TYWKIWDBI
A Tweet from Rob Corddry (formerly of The Daily Show, now with Adult Swim) is turned into a comic by David Barneda at Twaggies. Experiences with my youngest child lead me to believe this is true wisdom. Link
If you send text messages with an iPhone, iPad, or iPod, you may have noticed the annoying autocorrect feature that guesses what word you are trying to say - and is sometimes hilariously wrong. Damn You Autocorrect is a site that collects screencaps of these often incomprehensible assumptions. Some text may be NSFW. Link -via Metafilter
Sean Christensen interviews a woman about a very important sandwich she made for her brother many years ago. Even small things can become an unforgettable part of your family history. -via The Daily What
* Since 1939, he has starred in more than 175 films.
* He's been nominated for three Oscars, and won one -in 1958, for "Knighty Knight, Bugs" (with Yosemite Sam).
* Every year from 1945 to 1961, he was voted "top animated character" by movie theater owners (when they still showed cartoons in theaters).
* In 1985 he became only the 2nd cartoon character to be given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (Mickey Mouse was the first).
* For almost 30 years, starting in 1960, he had one of the top-rated shows in Saturday morning TV.
* In 1976, when researchers polled Americans on their favorite characters, real and imaginary, Bugs came in second ...behind Abraham Lincoln.
THE INSPIRATIONS
Bugs was born in the 1930s, but cartoon historians say his ancestry goes further back. A few direct antecedents:
* Zomo. You may not have heard of this African folk-rabbit. but he's world famous. Joe Adamson writes in Bugs Bunny: Fifty Years and Only One Grey Hare:
Like jazz and rock'n'roll, Bugs has at least some of his roots in black culture. Zomo is the trickster rabbit from Central and Eastern Africa who gained audience sympathy by being smaller than his oppressors and turning the tables on them through cleverness -thousands of years before Eastman invented film. A con artist, a masquerader, ruthless and suave, in control of the situation. Specialized in impersonating women.
It's time for another round of the Name That Weird Invention! contest. Steven M. Johnson comes up with all sorts of wacky inventions in his weekly Museum of Possibilities posts. Can you come up with a name for this one? The commenter suggesting the funniest and wittiest name win a free T-shirt from the NeatoShop.
Contest rules: one entry per comment, though you can enter as many as you'd like. Please make a selection of the T-shirt you want (may we suggest the Science T-shirt, Funny T-shirt, and Artist-designed T-shirt categories?) alongside your entry. If you don't select a shirt, then you forfeit the prize. Have fun with this one!
Update: Congratulations to noah, who suggested Club-Foot "Combine with Racquet-Bangles and Mallet-Trousers to be the ultimate 'One Man Country Club'" and to Caroline who called this Caddidas! Both win t-shirts from the NeatoShop. Stay tuned for another contest coming soon!
"Pac-man's skeleton" by Le Gentil Garçon, in collaboration with François Escuilié, palaeontologist
David Israel's latest BoingBoing quiz: something that should tax even the hardest-core retrogamers. The subject: musical scores from arcade and video games by Namco, one of the golden-age greats from Japan.
Don't forget to set your clocks back tonight! Daylight Saving Time ends in the US, with the exception of... oh, just read about it in Neatolicious Fun Facts: Daylight Saving Time. Here are the other Neatorama exclusives you'll want to catch up on from this week:
Stacy rounded up Movie Trivia: Back to the Future for the trilogy's 25th anniversary.
The winners for the October 29th Name That Weird Invention contest are Noah, who suggested "Colostocamp", and Hannah for "Loitering Within Tent". Both win t-shirts from the NeatoShop! Congratulations to both winners, and to the Honorable Mentions listed in the contest post.
In Mal and Chad's Fill in the Bubble Frenzy, congratulations go out to winner tyson, who said, "If you elbow me off, I'm just going to come after you on that rhino." That's good enough to win a t-shirt from the NeatoShop!
In the What Is It? Game, the mysterious object is a Japanese traveling candlestick, it's missing the part that would have caught the wax. Oskar got it right first, but didn't specify a T-shirt. Congratulations to Cristal who said "Mr. Burns' liver spot locator," and won the prize for the funniest answer.
If you missed this week's Neato-Puzzle, you still have time to try it out.
Once you've caught up on Neatorama, check out other great links from around the web at the NeatoHub. And then get your holiday shopping done early by ordering from the NeatoShop! Have a great weekend!
What do you do with the pelt of an extinct animal? Get it appraised, of course! Bill Warren of Fallbrook, California picked up an unidentified animal skin at a garage sale for $5, and found that it belongs to a Tasmanian tiger, or Thylacine (seen in this video), which was declared extinct in 1936.
Most of the known skins reside in museums and universities. All of which makes a pelt extremely valuable for private collectors.
“They’re a very rare item to come across,” said Andrew Snooks from Armitage Auctions in Australia.
Snooks said the auction house is negotiating with Warren to obtain the pelt. After the house confirms that the pelt is indeed a Tasmanian tiger, it will go up on the auction block.
Snooks said the last Tasmanian tiger pelt sold at the auction house went for $68,000, and a rug made from eight pelts sold for $260,000.
But the pelt cannot be sold because the Thylacine is still on the endangered species list from the US Fish and Wildlife service.
“It’s like putting a Brontosaurus on the endangered species list,” Warren said. “It’s driving me nuts.”
For now, Warren is applying for an exemption and hoping for the best.
