It is once again time for our collaboration with the always amusing What Is It? Blog. This week's contest is a little different. To be honest, we don't know what it is! It looks like a case, but no one knows for sure what it is for. Don't let that stop you from guessing.
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. We'll select two winners with the funniest and/or most imaginative guesses to win T-shirts from the NeatoShop.
Be sure to check out the What Is It? Blog. Let your imagination run wild, and good luck!
Update: The most imaginative guess was from arvana, who wrote a somewhat involved story insinuating that this case could hold the Prometheus Drive which would save the world's energy problems if it hadn't gone into the river (you really should read the whole thing). The funniest was when jjent567 declared the case was "fer me rat stompin' peg leg...".
Jen, who must be made of pure steel, walks a slack line at Tasmania's sea stack known as the Totem Pole. After you marvel at his focus, strength, and balance (not to mention bravery), consider one other thing -how did they get up there in the first place? -via Metafilter
Every age has its own bodybuilders and strongmen (and women, too). The late Jack LaLanne who passed away Sunday is one of a long line of fitness enthusiasts who drew fans, from Eugen Sandow to Arnold Schwarzeneggar. Pictured is the Great Sandow, who organized the first major bodybuilding competition in 1901. Link
Did you know you can get wallpaper that makes a room look like it's full of books? I thought, "Neat." Then I saw that there are many patterns of these wallpapers, some more convincing than others. The room pictured has no bookshelf -just wallpaper. See a half-dozen of these patterns at Remodelista Daily. Link -via Everlasting Blort
Do you know which animals spend the most time sleeping? We all know house cats sleep all day long, but they only come in at number seven on this list from Environmental Graffiti.
Cats along with mice, pigs and cheetahs love to spend a lot of quality time snoozing. They can sleep for around 12 hours per day. Rats, gerbils and lions are a little ahead of them as they can sleep for about 13 hours a day. This means they essentially spend 2/3rd of their entire lives in dreamland.
As you can see, there are way more than seven animals in this article. You probably won't be surprised to find out which one is the #1 sleepiest! Link
My, how things change! This Twaggie by David Barneda was inspired by a Tweet by Rosa Golijan. Ten years from now, how many more of our perceptions about the cosmos will have changed? Link
This large and involved anagram was posted in the front windows of the art gallery MKG127 in Toronto in 2007. Poet Christian Bok and artist Micah Lexier made this project work. -via reddit
The American Chemical Society produced the video A Day Without Chemistry to raise awareness of the many ways we depend on chemistry in our daily lives. The International Year of Chemistry (IYC) officially begins on February 1st.
The 63rd General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed 2011 as the International Year of Chemistry, envisioning a worldwide celebration of the achievements of chemistry and its contributions to the well-being of humankind. Also being celebrated in 2011 is the centennial of the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Marie Curie for her work on radioactivity, and the 100th anniversary of the founding of the International Association of Chemical Societies.
The American Chemical Society has a site full of ways to learn about chemistry and share your interest called ACS Celebrates IYC 2011, featuring new information and activities each day. Link
The Comedian of the Keyboard, also known as The Unmelancholy Dane, exited the earthly stage December 23rd, 2000. Victor Borge, the irrepressible musical humorist, didn’t quite make it into the true third millennium, but he lived almost 92 very full years and performed more than a 100 nights a year right up until the spotlight winked out.
Borge left the world a triple legacy. Born in Copenhagen to a family of musicians, Borge became a fine pianist and conductor. Too, he was that rare comedian who never used foul language and never made fun of anyone. "The smile is the shortest distance between two people," he observed. Most astonishingly, he became a genius in his second language -- English, which he learned by spending day after day in movie theaters.
Many years ago, Victor Borge created the game of inflationary language. Since prices keep going up, he reasoned, why shouldn't language go up too? In English, there are words that contain the sounds of numbers, such as "wonder" (one), "before" (four) and "decorate" (eight). If we inflate each sound by one number, we come up with a string of puns -- "twoder," "befive" and "decornine."
Here is a story based on Borge's idea. This tale invites you to read and hear inflationary language in all its inflated wonder -- oops, make that "twoder" and to remember the linguistically pyrotechnic genius of The Clown Prince of Denmark.
JACK AND THE TWODERFUL BEANS
Twice upon a time there lived a boy named Jack in the twoderful land of Califivenia. Two day Jack, a double-minded lad, decided three go fifth three seek his fivetune.
After making sure that Jack nine a sandwich and drank some Eight-Up, his mother elevenderly said, "Threedeloo, threedeloo. Try three be back by next Threesday." Then she cheered, "Three, five, seven, nine. Who do we apprecinine? Jack, Jack, yay!"
Jack set fifth and soon met a man wearing a four-piece suit and a threepee. Fifthrightly Jack asked the man, "I'm a Califivenian. Are you two three?"
"Cerelevenly," replied the man, offiving the high six. "Anytwo five elevennis?"
"Not threeday," answered Jack inelevently. "But can you help me three locnine my fivetune?"
"Sure," said the man. "Let me sell you these twoderful beans."
Jack's inthreeition told him that the man was a three-faced triple-crosser. Elevensely Jack shouted, "I'm not behind the nine ball. I'm a college gradunine, and I know what rights our fivefathers crenined in the Constithreetion. Now let's get down three baseven about these beans."
The man tripled over with laughter. "Now hold on a third," he responded. "There's no need three make such a three-do about these beans. If you twot, I'll give them three you."
Well, there's no need three elabornine on the rest of the tale. Jack oned in on the giant and two the battle for the golden eggs. His mother and he lived happily fivever after -- and so on, and so on, and so fifth.
This article is republished with permission from the Jan-Feb 2001 issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. You can download or purchase back issues of the magazine, or subscribe to receive future issues. Or get a subscription for someone as a gift!
Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.
Ben Huh, who found success with I Can Has Cheezburger and its many spinoff sites, recently secured $30 million in investment funding. That may sound like success, but the real sign that you've arrived is when NMA makes an animation of your story for Asian news outlets. -via Laughing Squid
Can you name the most popular websites in the United States? That's the challenge in today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. You have two minutes to name the top ten (you don't have to type the URL). There are really no surprises here, so if you don't get them all, you'll kick yourself when you see the answers. I got all ten in time, but I have to admit that I typed a lot of wrong guesses quickly! Link
The Fine Brothers are back with more movie spoilers -if you can keep up! If you don't want to know how these comedy films end, you might want to skip this, but you've probably seen them all. Anyway, these are mostly endings you can see coming a mile away. -Thanks, Benny & Rafi!
Isn't he sweet? You may have seen this picture around the web the last few days. No, It's not a tiny polar bear -it's plush! And you can make one yourself, with a pattern from Etsy seller Tatiana Scalozub. Link -via Arbroath
