Look, something's wrong with Neatorama! Not to worry, that's just the Hurrdurr version. You can make any website look like this by going through HURRDURR.IT, new from the folks at Urlesque, which is going by the name Hurrlesque today. http://hurrdurr.it/

[caption id="attachment_44063" align="aligncenter" width="350" caption="Even the Wicked Witch is no match for the Scarecrow!"][/caption]

Amazon sells the Contech Electronics CRO101 Scarecrow Motion-Activated Sprinkler. The normal purpose of such a device is to scare pets and wildlife (and maybe kids) away from your lawn or garden. However, many folks have their own ideas of how it should be used, as you'll see in the seven pages of customer-submitted images. http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-media/product-gallery/B000071NUS/ref=cm_ciu_pdp_images_all -via b3ta

"Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door." Sure, it's an old saw, but it's also literally true.

Between 1838, when the United States Patent Office opened its doors, and 1996, the year that Jack Hope wrote a story about the device for American Heritage magazine, more than 4,400 mousetrap patents were awarded in dozens of different subclasses, including "Electrocuting and Explosive," "Swinging Striker," "Choking or Squeezing," and 36 others. That's an average of more than two dozen patents every year for more than 150 years. What makes that number more spectacular is that 95 percent of those patents were given to amateur, or first-time inventors.

That's more patents than have been awarded for any other device, according to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History (NMAH), which is currently celebrating the mousetrap by displaying several different designs on the first floor of the museum in one of several long glass cases that greet visitors, both new and returning, when they enter the building.

Nicholas Jackson writes in The Atlantic about various mousetrap designs and how they represent the entrepreneurial spirit. Included is a gallery of some of the more interesting mousetrap patents recorded over the years. Link -via Look at This

Colin Greenhalgh adds monsters and somewhat-poetic captions to vintage postcards to make them much more interesting.

Meanwhile in Adventure Land, an imp lands a hand, scaring all the guests. Onlookers are captivated in fear, as he emerges from the murk, and lets lose a terrifying burp.

See a variety of such nonsense at his blog Monsters Abroad. Link -Thanks, Amy Dix!

Who has more bacteria in their navel -Carl Zimmer of The Loom or Peter Aldhous of NewScientist? The swabs have been taken, and the cultures were grown. You can see the results in petri dishes. It's part of the Belly Button Biodiversity Project led by Jiri Hulcr of North Carolina State University.

The project was conceived as a device to interest the public in microbiology, and to counter the common view that bacteria are nothing but causes of disease. "This fear is based on a lack of awareness that we live in a microbial world," says Hulcr, who notes that even some "self-described germophobes" have confronted their anxieties and given swabs.

Hulcr also aims to extend a scientific frontier: researchers are realising that the human "microbiome" - the diversity of microorganisms that inhabit our bodies - is a key influence on our health and physiology. The skin remains poorly explored territory, and the belly button is an ideal sampling point because it doesn't get as scrubbed and sprayed with chemicals as much other, more accessible parts.

See more navel microbes growing at NewScientist. Link -via Carl Zimmer

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Imagine an ice cream truck rolling into your neighborhood playing that tune -wouldn't you run to it as fast as you can? Admiral Snackbar, indeed! This is an advertisement for Star Wars Popsicles, one of many April Fool's Day items from Think Geek. Link

The Playmobil Apple Store is a preschool geek's dream toy! It features the Genius Bar, kid's corner, sales floor, and a conference room -and comes with over 60 accessories! And get this -you can slip your iPhone in place behind Steve Jobs and animate his presentation! The Playmobil Apple Store is a new item introduced today at ThinkGeek. Link

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YouTube combines vintage footage, special effects, and modern memes to salute the viral videos of 100 years ago with this top 5 countdown. Somehow this video has 7,200 likes and a few hundred dislike, but only 489 views -but it's their website, so I guess they can do that. The YouTube page has links to the videos that inspired this compilation. -via Buzzfeed

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The Vlog Brothers demonstrate once again that there are only a four chords in pop music, and they are used over and over.

See also: Rob Paravonian's Pachelbel Rant and The Axis of Awesome.

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Some would argue that the best part of the TV series Police Squad! was the end credits, in which the common freeze-frame method was parodied. This video has the ending credits to all six episodes, including the one with the chimpanzee who didn't know how to hold a freeze-frame. -via reddit

This is an x-ray image of a Heliotrygon gomesi, one of two new species of freshwater "pancake" stingrays discovered in the Amazon rain forest. See more pictures at Amazing Planet. Link -via Boing Boing

(Image credit: Ken Jones)

A good day of angling is sometimes described as fish jumping into the boat. The real life experience can be frightening. Texas fisherman Jason Kresse and two companions were about 50 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico looking for red snapper on Monday, throwing chum into the water when an 8-foot mako shark appeared- on board!

"All of a sudden something hit the side of the boat," Kresse told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "He ends up landing on the back of the boat."

The mako shark had apparently been in a rush to feed. It began thrashing around, and Kresse said he and his crew couldn't get close to the 375-pound fish to toss it back in the water. It damaged the boat before dying several hours later.

Kresse, who has been fishing since he was a child, said the unplanned catch was a shock. Just unloading it was a challenge because it was so heavy.

"We had to use a forklift to get it off the boat when we got to the dock," Kresse said.

Fish and Wildlife officials will not cite Kresse for catching the shark without a permit, because the catch was the shark's doing. Link -via Arbroath

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It's now called the "special flip" because "Special Greg" Powell was the one who accomplished it. This performance of Nitro Circus was recorded in Gosford, Australia. -via reddit

Today, Neatorama's literature blog Bitlit is proud to introduce a new book: The Cube by Nat Karody.

Were you disappointed by the ending to the series Lost? What follows is a story with as intricate a mythology as Lost’s but with an important difference: in the end it is all explained mechanistically, without resort to mysticism or religion. In the end the following summary of the core mystery, taken from the opening chapter, will be perfectly sensible:

The Oopsah told a story, a majestic, exalted, beatific story of the coming of the end times and the rise of the Controller. He learned how the world would end, who would destroy it, and how he, Zranga, could prevent it. He learned that he had been appointed by destiny – by the Controller himself – to carry out this mission. But above all he learned of the existence of a perfect being, the demigod Celeste, trapped beyond time in a cycle of eternal death. Only Zranga could rescue her, and to do this he had to place a giant door on the bottom of the Silent Sea, and kill the Great Man.

Read on to found out how far Ivy Morven will go to stop Tobor Zranga from realizing his destiny, and how this alternative universe is bizarrely structured so that the most rational acts are the most extreme.

Start now with chapter one, and keep up with all the chapter of The Cube as they are posted with this http://www.neatorama.com/bitlit/category/the-cube/.

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The revolutionary movements of the Middle East, explained by the cast of the game Angry Birds in a retro-animation cartoon set to the tune of the Three Little Pigs. Does that make it all clear now? Of course, the real story isn't over yet. -via Buzzfeed