As people upgrade to flatscreen TVs, their old model cathode-ray tube cabinet sets can be bought for a song. Matt Davidson got one of those old TVs and used the cabinet to enclose an aquarium. But to make it a proper TV aquarium, he outfitted it to exactly resemble Jerry’s apartment in the TV show Seinfeld! The fish are named Jerry, George, Elaine, Kramer, and Newman. He says it only took a few hours work over a period of a couple of years. Follow the project step-by-step at Awesomeness Projects, including how he made the furniture and closeups of each fish. There’s even a video of the fish in action. Now Davidson can choose to watch his regular TV or watch his pets recreate his favorite bygone show. -via reddit
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Only in America do we conflate Christmas shopping with an epic battle between warring nations. As opening time on Black Friday approaches, Target employees get an inspirational speech from a guy the uploader says is named Scott, but I believe it may actually be William Wallace or Leonidas. Considering how outnumbered the Target crew will be in the looming melee, they will need all the inspiration they can get. -via Daily Picks and Flicks
There are few movie stars who can combine comedy and action as smoothly as Jackie Chan. What makes him so good at what he does? Detailed attention to lot of a lot of things you never consciously notice in a movie. Every frame is planned, choreographed, and edited just so. In this fascinating video from the series Every Frame a Painting, Tony Zhou explains those details. While he does, we get to see Chan fight his way through four decades of movies. Particularly interesting is the difference between his Hong Kong films and his American movies, where he doesn’t have as much control over the finished product. -via Laughing Squid
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
What can you say about Tom Hanks? Possibly the most beloved actor in the world, Tom is our generation's everyman- “The modern day James Stewart.” We all know and love him and none of us will ever forget his amazing performances in Saving Private Ryan, Cast Away, Big, A League of Their Own, Toy Story, Catch Me If You Can, Splash!, Nothing in Common and so many other Tom Hanks "classic" movies.
Tom won back-to-back Academy Awards as Best Actor for his performances in Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. He thus joined Spencer Tracy as the only actor in history to win two consecutive Best Actor Oscars.
I had the great pleasure and honor of working with Tom in The Polar Express (2004) and it was truly a wonderful, unforgettable experience. Alright, let's take a look at 18 facts you may not know about Tom Hanks...
* Tom's movies have earned $4.2 billion dollars in the U.S. and Canada. His worldwide movie box office gross is an unbelievable $8.4 billion. His movies average $107 million each. This makes Tom the all-time movie champion of the movie box office.
* His three favorite musical acts are Elvis Presley, Patrick Rondat, and Alabama Thunderpussy.
* He has an asteroid named after him ("12818 Tomhanks").
DJ Earworm has delivered his annual mashup of the past year’s biggest pop hits, skillfully blended into one memorable song. Yes, some of your favorites might be missing, because this is based on the top 25 songs according to Billboard's weekly Hot 100 charts. In an interview at Billboard, we learn that
Fashioning a pop song out of R&B ballads like John Legend’s “All Of Me” and offbeat pop-rock tracks like Bastille’s “Pompeii” is no easy task, and Earworm says that crafting the 2014 “United State of Pop” was a more challenging process than usual. He relied on the drums from Jessie J’s “Bang Bang,” the percussion of DJ Snake & Lil Jon’s “Turn Down For What,” the horns from Jason Derulo’s “Talk Dirty” and the piano hooks from A Great Big World’s “Say Something” to help create an instrumental bed that was “much more complex” than in previous years.
“I would love the whole thing to be perfectly blended each time, but it also has to be digestible,” Earworm explains. “Some years, it’s a pretty straightforward instrumental from one source, but this year is the most blended instrumental I’ve been able to achieve yet.”
The songs are listed at the YouTube page. -via Uproxx
See also: DJ Earworm’s mashups from 2013, 2011, 2010, 2008, and 2007.
Almost as soon as photography was invented, the first microphotographs followed -to demonstrate the power of a microscope. These tiny pictures became popular among the general public when the Stanhope lens, a tiny magnifying glass, was developed. Beginning in the mid-19th century, the photographs and lenses were embedded into everyday objects that people could peek at privately anytime they wanted. Family portraits were a popular subject, but landmark images made into souvenirs sold like crazy, since the postcard had yet to be invented. Then there were the nude microphotographs, which were easily hidden.
Dubious press coverage at the time claimed that the English preferred Stanhopes with photos of calendars or banknotes, the Italians wanted religious imagery, and the Germans wanted more risqué fare. In fact, erotic Stanhopes were popular everywhere, typically built into objects expected to remain within a circle of male viewers. “Usually the most erotic ones are in smokers’ equipment because that wouldn’t have been used by women,” says Scott. “Since they were so tiny, nobody else would have noticed them.” Melnick points out that a nude photo in a sewing tool or scent bottle is often a sign that the Stanhope isn’t authentic.
One of the largest collections of erotic Stanhope lenses is housed at the Kinsey Institute in Bloomington, Indiana. Melnick has worked closely with the Kinsey collection—donating Stanhope objects, repairing lenses, and preparing items for display. Most of their Stanhope archive was made up of loose lenses never inserted into objects. These Stanhopes arrived as a single donation in the 1920s, when they were confiscated in the mail as pornography presumably on their way from a lens manufacturer to a client making novelty items. “There were thousands, with 30-some different images,” Melnick says. “Some are actresses with clothes on, but mostly they’re stylized nudes doing poses amid weird props or things like that.” Combining their small size and secretive placement, Stanhopes were perfect for hiding erotic imagery in plain sight.
Jean Scott, author of the book Stanhopes: A Closer View, tells us the history of these early microphotographs, which are highly collectible now, at Collectors Weekly. Contains NSFW images.
(Image credit: Rob Niederman)
Graham Annable, who also goes by the name Grickle (previously at Neatorama), is back with a new Christmas cartoon. It goes from dreadful to sweet in 68 seconds flat. The entire description:
Let no one be forgotten this season.
Happy Holidays.
-via Tastefully Offensive
In 1985, a collection of about 200 brains from mental asylum patients was put into a closet at the University of Texas in Austin. There, they sat for a quarter century until photographer Adam Voorhes found out about them in 2011.
Texas State Lunatic Asylum, like other American institutions in the 20th century, was meant to be an escape from the inhumane mental hospitals of the previous era. It devolved into overcrowding and experimental treatments, and its records went missing, leaving only the labels on the jars to identify the patient remains. The specimens were amassed between 1952 and 1983 by the asylum's pathologist Dr. Coleman de Chenar under vague legality for mental health research. Their stark descriptions just give the patient number, disease, and date of death: "Down's syndrome, 02/10/83"; "Hydrocephalus internus, Ex: February 10, 1960."
Voorhes took pictures of the remaining brains, and collaborated with journalist Alex Hannaford to tell the story of those brains in the book Malformed: Forgotten Brains of the Texas State Mental Hospital. Even all these years later, some of the brains look perfectly normal; others are oddly-shaped, show scars, or are missing the familiar features of a normal brain. Efforts are underway to scan the brains for a medical research. The university is also looking into why many of the brains are missing from the collection. You can find an overview of the brain collection’s story and more pictures from the book at Atlas Obscura.
(Image credit: Adam Voorhes/Powerhouse Books)
One of the thoughts you inevitably have on a ski lift or chair lift is what happens if the mechanism stops? Travis Waite found out when he went up at Beach Mountain ski resort. He’s lucky the lift wasn’t any higher at his stopping point. The rescuers threw a rope over the cable so he could be belayed down. But oh, that snow is slippery! That’s when the procedure goes altogether slapstick. Then the boss says, “You know, next time I’m gonna have to…” Next time? Now I have to wonder how often this happens. In this video you’ll see something that rarely happens in these type of videos: the guy with the camera actually puts it down to help! -via Daily Picks and Flicks
Berlin photographer Christoph Schieder’s father-in-law Lothar passed away almost a year ago. Since then, his apartment has been emptied, painted, and renovated. Schieder pulled out pictures he had taken of the apartment when Lothar lived there and then took shots from the same angles as they look now. The visual effect is sad, as if the personality of the place has been wiped clean.
That may be true of the apartment, but Lothar will live on in the memories of his family members and friends -and in pictures. There is another way to look at the apartment. Stripping an apartment of all its personal touches in this manner opens up an entirely new palette for the next occupant to personalize and make it his home. It’s the circle of housing. See the complete series at Schieder’s blog. Thanks, Özi!
(Images credit: Christoph Schieder)
Our friend Ron Gordon is an educator who loves to spot patterns in calendar dates. He gave us Square Root Day, Odd Day, and other calendar holidays. The next one he designated Tic-Tac-Toe Day, on 12-13-14. That’s three numbers in a row, get it? However, this will be the last time the numbers line up sequentially this century. And Gordon is definitely celebrating- with a contest!
We’ve established a contest, and are offering the date in dollars ($1,213.14) to be shared by our 12+13+14 winners. Prizes will be distributed among those who create the most consequential sequential celebration. Suggestions include a poem, a story, a glorious winter gathering, a grand tic tac toe tournament, or a commemorative costume. Heck, you can even sponsor a debate to determine if 12/12/12 earned the designation, and perhaps this is truly nought “tic tac toe” but a calendar impostor.
Read more about Tic-Tac-Toe Day and other calendar holidays at the Tic-Tac-Toe Day website. -Thanks, Ron!
Just as Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is going to home video, Screen Junkies gives us the Honest Trailer for it. If you haven’t seen the film yet, this contains minor spoilers, but not enough to make you not want to watch it. Frankly, it’s hard to parse a plot out of anything in this video. But I’ll still watch it, because when the scales are balanced between “stupid” and “awesome,” I’ll just make more popcorn. -via Gamma Squad
If you read The Three Faces of Eve or Sybil, you are familiar with Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD). Both books were based on real patients. The syndrome became a handy plot point for many crimes shows. However, in the years since, there has been doubt cast that the disorder even exists as those cases presented. The New York Times produced this video, along with an article exploring what we know and what we don’t know about the most famous MPD patient, Shirley Mason, who became known to the world as Sybil. -via mental_floss
PBS Digital Studios put together a tribute to the Mars Curiosity rover illustrated with a LEGO build and narrated with inspirational quotes from some very prominent scientists you may recognize. The point is that to make Curiosity and successfully launch it onto the surface of Mars, you have to start with your own curiosity. -via Geeks Are Sexy
If you don’t clean up your dog’s poop in North Hempstead, a community on Long Island, New York, you’ll face the possibility of a fine or imprisonment. But how much is the fine? The law says the fine is $25, but the signs say the fine is $250. It was a misprint. It would cost a lot of money for the small community to have all the signs changed, so they are considering raising the fine to match what the signs mistakenly say!
Community leaders have been considering raising the fine to what is actually posted. They want to do that instead of footing the bill for replacing hundreds of signs for a crime that is not easy to stop.
“It is hard to enforce, because you actually have to catch the dog in the act in order to give them a citation,” said North Hempstead town spokeswoman Carole Trottere.
The matter has yet to be decided. But a $250 fine may be a better deterrent, and a few violators might eventually raise enough money to actually replace the signs. However, if it works, there would be no reason to go back to the lower fine. -via Arbroath
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