Okay, the full picture of this little boy might be shocking at first glance, so we made it an opt-in image.

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It’s not what it appears to be. Redditor nyctibius tells us his little brother tried to make himself a drink in the middle of the night. He dropped and broke (or maybe just spilled) a bottle of rose cordial, which is a syrup you add to milk or water and sugar to make a drink. The syrup is fairly thick and very red. No doubt the boy's wails of failure summoned nyctibius to the scene of the crime, and of course the first thing he did was take a picture of the carnage. The child is fine. The pajamas are probably not.

The following is an article from The Annals of Improbable Research.

Dog tail-wagging research
by Otto Didact, Improbable Research staff

Detail from the study "A Vicious Cycle: A Cross-Sectional Study of Canine Tail-Chasing and Human Responses to It, Using a Free Video-Sharing Website."

Human Responses to Canine Tail-Chasing
“A Vicious Cycle: A Cross-Sectional Study of Canine Tail-Chasing and Human Responses to It, Using a Free Video-Sharing Website,” Charlotte C. Burn, PLoS ONE, vol. 6, no. 11, 2011, e26553. The author, at the Royal Veterinary College, North Mymms, Hertfordshire, UK, reports:

Tail-chasing is widely celebrated as normal canine behaviour in cultural references. However, all previous scientific studies of tail-chasing or ‘spinning’ have comprised small clinical populations of dogs with neurological, compulsive or other pathological conditions; most were ultimately euthanased. Thus, there is great disparity between scientific and public information on tail-chasing. I gathered data on the first large (n = 400), nonclinical tail-chasing population, made possible through a vast, free, online video repository, YouTubeTM.... Approximately one third of tailchasing dogs showed clinical signs, including habitual (daily or ‘all the time’) or perseverative (difficult to distract) performance of the behaviour. These signs were observed across diverse breeds. Clinical signs appeared virtually unrecognised by the video owners and commenting viewers; laughter was recorded in 55% of videos, encouragement in 43%, and the commonest viewer descriptors were that the behaviour was ‘funny’ (46%) or ‘cute’ (42%).

Detail from the study "Asymmetric Tail-Wagging Responses by Dogs to Different Emotive Stimuli."

Asymmetric Tail-Wagging Responses by Dogs

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.

In late 2002, I was called down to a brief voice-over dub-in job. I went down to the studio, just expecting to dub in a few lines when I saw my old pal and all-time favorite director Bob Zemeckis there. Apparently, I would be dubbing in a few lines for Bob's new movie called The Polar Express.

I dubbed in my lines and I could only see Bob sitting behind me in the glass-windowed control room. Bob was looking sightly blasé. If he liked a line I dubbed, he would just stick his thumb up in the air, rather like a bored Roman emperor.

I finished the gig and Bob came out of the booth. I was so happy to see him. We chatted briefly and I left, thinking that was the end of that.

But a few weeks later, I was called in to do a screen test for the movie The Polar Express at Warner Brothers studios. It was a long ride, but I hopped the necessary buses to get there, did a light easy screen test, wearing my navy blue jacket and ad-libbing a few funny lines (or so I hoped).

I got the role! I would be playing "the Know-it-All kid" in the first-ever "motion capture" 3D movie- The Polar Express.

My first day on the set, Tom Hanks came bouncing into the room. He spotted me and came over to say hi to me first (before anybody else in the crowded room!!!). “HI Eddie. I’m Tom" (no **** Sherlock!!) His friendliness and warmth bowed me over immediately.

My old pal Peter Scolari, who I had met doing a low-budget movie with years before, was there, too. I loved Peter, one of the nicest actors I had ever worked with.

With the new motion capture technology, each day, Tom, Peter, Nona Gaye, daughter of music legend Marvin Gaye (Nona was to be the girl in our lead foursome in the film) would go to make-up, get our faces marked off with 152 "dots" and then the dots would be glued, each one individually, to our faces. We each wore scuba diving caps and scuba outfits, each in a different color- i.e. Tom was blue, I was yellow, etc. etc.

The floor plan you see here includes ten tiny one-bedroom apartments, each with its own bathroom and kitchenette, and not much storage space. They all share a common area with couches and TV, some recreational equipment, a large common kitchen, laundry facilities, and storage space. It’s an experimental living space in Syracuse, New York, called Commonspace, designed for young singles who want their own private space but don’t want to live completely alone. Owner Troy Evans and partner John Talarico hope to recruit tenants for an initial six-month lease. Will the people renting here get along? That’s the job of the “social engineer,” who will troubleshoot and arrange group activities.

The apartments will be fully furnished to appeal to potential residents who don’t own much (the units will have very limited storage space). The bedrooms are built into the big windows of the office building—one window per unit—and the rest of the apartment can be traversed in three big leaps. Residents will only have to sign up for six months to start. Evans and Talarico hope to also rent out some of the units on Airbnb to get fresh faces moving through the space.

The units will cost between $700 and $900 a month, which is slightly cheaper than the going rent for a one-bedroom in downtown Syracuse, the two say.

Would you like to live in a place like this? An article at The Atlantic compares it to dorm living, but it reminds me more of a retirement community. College dormitories don’t normally have kitchenettes or private space, and college dorms often cost more. -via Digg

(Image credit: Commonspace)

Winston the White Corgi shows off his Stormtrooper armor. I am sure the whole reasoning behind the selection of costume was Princess Leia’s line from the first Star Wars movie. Still, he’s adorable, as all corgis are.  

(YouTube link)

Funny, I’ve never seen a Stormtrooper smile like that! And may the fluff be with you. -via Geeks Are Sexy

The classic challenge is to tell someone to try and not think of an elephant. Once you name a forbidden thought, there’s no stopping it. Distraction might work, but only until you remember what you were distracting yourself from. It becomes an endless cycle, and possibly a debilitating obsession. At least we know now why cat videos are so popular! You may as well get up and do something useful until you can no longer stay awake. May I suggest a ten-mile hike? This illustration of the tortuous cycle is from Chris Hallbeck at Maximumble. -via Geeks Are Sexy

There are 50 sheep in this picture. Can you see them? If you can, don’t try to count them, or you’ll fall asleep. If you can’t see them, a series of progressively helpful pictures will lead the way. Come on, don’t be sheepish! Ewe can even enlarge them. Among all the baaad sheep jokes and puns in the comments, we got one real bit of wisdom:

You don't have to "see" sheep, you can smell them from miles away.

Now, aren’t you glad we’re just looking at pictures? -via reddit

Like a scene from Game of Thrones, a crumbling yet still imposing stone castle rises above the North Sea coastline near Cruden Bay in Scotland. This is New Slains Castle, although “new” is relative. It was built sometime after 1597.  

Little more than a derelict shell, the haunting ruin of New Slains Castle cuts an imposing landmark on the windswept coastline of Aberdeenshire. The roof has long since collapsed and a carpet of grass extends throughout. Only the internal walls offer a glimpse back to the structure’s heyday. Built by Francis Hay, Earl of Erroll, at the end of the 16th century to replace Old Slains Castle, which had been destroyed on the orders of King James VI following a religious rebellion, the castle’s most distinguished visitor finally arrived some 300 years later.

Said to have been invited by the 18th Earl of Erroll, Bram Stoker walked the corridors of New Slains while visiting Cruden Bay in 1894, likely drawing inspiration for his classic horror novel Dracula, which was published three years later. The castle was abandoned in the early 20th century when financial difficulties forced the 20th Earl to sell New Slains, which was quickly gutted and left to the ravages of time.

I'm sure Dracula would feel right at home, as well as the Starks, or any number of fictional ancient clans. New Slains Castle is just one of 7 Creepy Abandoned Places in Scotland. Read about hospitals, seminaries, amusement parks, military installations, and more at Urban Ghosts.

(Image credit: Flickr user Alice)

YouTube member ROTO SCOPIC started a project he didn’t quite complete, but the test footage he spent so much time on didn’t go to waste because we get to enjoy SPIDERS with LIGHT SABERS!

(YouTube link)

Specifically, the wonderful dancing peacock spiders filmed by Peacockspiderman (Jurgen Otto, previously at Neatorama). Song lyrics may be NSFW. -via Metafilter

There are certain amenities that let you know you’ve really arrived -even if it’s just for one night. At L'Albereta resort near Franciacorta in Italy, you can book a suite called the Cabriolet. In its bedroom, you can press a button and the roof opens up to show you the open sky above. Cool! Enjoy the great outdoors while lounging in your 5-star suite in Lombardy. See more pictures of this primo suite at Worthly.

Drake’s new song "Hotline Bling" has become quite the hit. Mike Lavin likes it. Even his cat gets down to the groove!

(vimeo link)

What was that about pets and their owners looking alike? You have to admit the song has a hypnotic beat. These two may have rocked themselves to sleep. -via reddit

Ron Gordon, who keeps up with the patterns made by our calendars, reminds us that next week brings us Friday the 13th -and the final Odd Day of this century! Odd Day is when the month, day and year are all odd numbers in a row, and this Friday will be 11/13/15. We celebrated Odd Day in 2009, 2011, and 2013. But we can’t keep having Odd Day every two years, because we only have twelve months. So 11/13/15 will be the last Odd Day until 1/3/2105. Gordon is having a contest for Odd Day, with the biggest prize package yet.  

We've established a contest and are offering the date in dollars ($1,113.15) to be shared by the winners. Prizes will be distributed to those who involve the most people in the Oddest Parade of Odd Characters, write the best Odd Ode, or create the best Odd Celebrations. The total number of winners?---oddly enough is 11+13+15---so join the fun and earn a (small) prize, with huge bragging rights!

Check out the Odd Day website for suggestions on how to celebrate Odd Day, which mostly boils down to doing something odd. And even though we won’t see any more Odd Days, we get to celebrate Square Root Day next year on 4/4/16!  

The Japanese trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens has quite a bit of new footage not available in the U.S. version.

(YouTube link)

Even more so, it’s an exciting look at the movie we only have to wait another six weeks for. Still no Luke Skywalker. Unless he's wearing a mask. -via Geeks Are Sexy

British department store John Lewis has released their 2015 Christmas ad. It doesn’t make a bit of sense, but bring your hankie anyway, because it’s an obvious analogy (which went over the heads of many YouTube commenters, who want to argue about realism and physics). The music is “Half the World Away,” originally by Oasis, here performed by Aurora.

(YouTube link)

John Lewis has became known around the world for their heart-tugging Christmas campaigns. You might want to check out those from 2012, 2013, and 2014. This year’s campaign includes a fundraising effort for Age UK, an organization that works with the elderly. -via Buzzfeed

“The World’s Fastest Orchestra” is 43 people tossing coins in close sequence. Their target is an array of beakers with exact amounts of liquid in them. The toss takes about a second, but when the video is slowed down enough, you can hear a short piece of a minuet by Mozart.

(YouTube link)

I can well believe the music, but I refuse to take the coin toss at face value. I’ve played skeeball a few times, and those simultaneous tosses cannot all be as accurate as portrayed. One missed note and one broken beaker are not enough to convince me. Still a neat video. Turns out, it’s a soda pop ad. -via the Presurfer