The rock carvings on the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation in Nevada are fairly well known, but no one knew just how old they were before paleoclimatologist Larry Benson dated them using the history of the area's climate.

"They're almost unique in the sense that the grooves have been carved down almost an inch deep in some cases," says Benson, an emeritus scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey who does research for the University of Colorado and its Museum of Natural History.

Just by looking at the designs, Benson thought he might know how old they were. He noticed that the symbols are much whiter than the gray rock they're carved into.

He knew from his climate research that the dry area where the petroglyphs are located was once a lake, and that the white coating was probably left from the last time the rocks were submerged in water, which suggested that the petroglyphs may be older than 11,000 years

"And I did know, at least from my limited knowledge, that these were probably older than the oldest dated petroglyphs in North America," he recalls.

By comparing the coatings of the carved rocks with non-carved rocks in the area, he determined that the petroglyphs were carved in a dry period between 10,000 and 14,800 years ago. Read more about the dating process at NPR. Link -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Larry Benson)

If you spend your week working and doing normal stuff, then kick back on the weekend to have fun on the internet, this little update might help you find the most important things on Neatorama that you don't want to miss. This week, that includes links to several giveaways in which you can win nice prizes from the NeatoShop! But first, don't miss any of our exclusive features from this past week.

Monday was the 136th anniversary of physicist Erwin Schrödinger's birth, so Alex gave us 7 Neat Facts About Schrödinger in honor of the occasion.

Alex also brought us a couple of posts on the big picture Spotlight blog: The Food Rorschach Test and Underdogs: Dogs Dressed as Their Owners.

And then he gave us an all-video post on the group World Order: The Music. The Suits. The MOVES!

Eddie Deezen told us what happened when Bob Dylan Introduces the Beatles to Marijuana.

Tiffany gave a review of the McDonald's Beef Rendang Burger, found in Indonesian outlets.

This Man Knows Why You're Laughing came from mental_floss magazine.

Uncle John's Bathroom Reader contributed The Golden Age of Radio.

Can Fame Be Measured Quantitatively? was from the Annals of Improbable Research.

Over at the Lifestyles of the Cute and Cuddly, our featured pet was Chester Smooshyface, pictured here. Chester was a scientist in another life! We'd like to see your pet, too, so send pictures to tips@neatorama.com and your cat, dog, horse, hamster, or whatever may soon be our featured pet!

You don't want to miss out on our regular weekly columns, either. David Israel had another Question In Need of Answers, this week asking What Non-Traditional Medical Cures Actually Work? We got a lot of helpful advice and a lot of silliness in the comments.

Hy Conrad presented another Whodunit, called The Doc's Last Lunch.

Jill Harness had a poll on the new flavors of Lay's potato chips. Sriracha flavor ended up ahead of the rest, but not by much.

In the What Is It? game this week, the mystery object is an English champagne tap from the early 1900s, after penetrating the cork with the screw, the small knob is rotated to open the valve to fill a glass, the valve can then be closed to keep the remaining champagne fresh. Berhard was the first with the correct answer, and wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! The funniest answer came from artanis knarf, who said, "It's for tapping a lovely bunch of coconuts....deedly deedly." That's good for a t-shirt, too! See the answers to the other mystery items at the What Is It? blog.

But that's just the beginning of the giveaways! We've got several contests that are still open for you to enter.

David Israel is running a contest on the social media sites Twitter and G+ called the Whiteboard Contest. You've only got until Monday to enter, so check out the particulars here.

You've got until August 25th to enter the NeatoShop's Dream Picnic Pin to Win Contest on Pinterest! You could win a whole slew of great prizes from the NeatoShop.

And if you want to win a t-shirt right here on the blog, check out the NeatoShop New T-Shirts Giveaway. However, your chances of winning are better if you enter all the contests!

The non-giveaway post this week that received the most comments was, of course, Questions In Need of Answers - No. 5: What Non-Traditional Medical Cures Actually Work? Besides that, the most comments went to If You Were in a Food Fight to the Death, What Would Be Your Weapon of Choice? followed by a tie between Literally Now Literally Means Figuratively and Would You Prefer The American or Canadian "Do Us A Flavor" Flavors? Those conversations are still open for your contributions!

The comment of the week came from Artor, who responded to the Death Star Butt Painting with "That's not a moon! ...Oh yeah. It is. Care to take a shot at that exhaust port?"

The most popular post was 1946 Alcatraz Menu. Coming in second was Literally Now Literally Means Figuratively, and Underdogs: Dogs Dressed as Their Owners was third. 

The post with the most hearts was Dog Plays Game with Himself, with Abused Donkey Gets New Pants and A Random Act of Kindness by a Motorcyclist tying for second place.

And the most emailed post was Underdogs: Dogs Dressed as Their Owners, followed by a three-way tie between Amazing: Pizza Tosser Dances with His Dough, Dog Plays Game with Himself, and This is How You Die.

Yeah, we know older posts are liable to have more views, hearts, comments, and emails for the week. We aren't giving away any prizes for the post statistics, but they help us know what kind of things you like to read and share. And since certain posts did well way back in the week while you were working, sharing them here again helps you catch up on the most notable of them.

Check out the back-to-school items like lunch boxes and backpacks that are on sale right now at the NeatoShop. Get the school year started right by getting your student something special no one else will have!

Have a great week, Neatoramanauts!

Our featured pet today is ChesterSmooshyFace, submitted by Janna Dokos. Chester has his own blog, which also features his brother Garfield, so you can see more of him! And here's a picture of Chester from another site, in which Photoshoppers turned him into one of the Cat Scientists of the 60s!

Thanks, Janna!     

Detroit is not the only industrial city seeing hard times and vacant homes. Gary, Indiana, has 10,000 abandoned and unoccupied houses, which attract vandals and bring property values down. But a pilot program hopes to lure new families into the old neighborhoods. Initially, twelve homes in one neighborhood are being offered for the price of one dollar. There are some requirements. Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson explained:

"Essentially what we do is give those houses out through a lottery process. People have to qualify, families have to qualify through income, through the ability to fix up the homes, because these homes have been abandoned and so they do need some work – anywhere between $25,000 to $50,000 worth of work," Freeman-Wilson said in an interview with CBC's Lang O'Leary Exchange.

The benefit would be that the new homeowners would pay taxes, remove the homes from the city’s list of derelict buildings, and improve the character of the neighbourhoods where they settle, Freeman-Wilson said.

Another requirement is that the buyer live in the home for five years, so if you don't already have a job in the area, you probably would not meet the income requirement. Link  -via Holy Kaw!

(YouTube link)

The Korean dance group Morning of Owl shows off some innovative moves at the 2013 R16 dance battle in Seoul. You can see the entire sequence, with their competition Slavic United, in a longer video at  Laughing Squid. Link

(YouTube link)

WeddingMan123 did a wedding photo shoot (two days before the actual wedding) and used a quadcopter to get some video footage. Well, you know how it is when you are trying to do too many things at once… and we have a little mishap. The groom sustained a cut on his head and cheek. Luckily, the couple were good-natured about it and continued the shoot. The photographer says,

At the request of the bride and groom I put the video online. All though it sucks that this happened. I have decided to own up to what I did, instead of try to hide it from the world.

I'd kind of like to see the pictures taken afterward. -via Daily Picks and Flicks

The Star Wars logo seems so familiar to us now that we don't even remember when it was different 36-37 years ago. The classic typography wasn't even finalized for all print media until after the movie's release. In the pre-release hype, we saw several different versions that seem just plain odd now. Follow the development and the changes of that logo at Visual News. Link  -via Digg

Part of the art of the modern TV series is knowing when to bow out gracefully and how to deliver a final episode that will seal the series' reputation for posterity -not to mention syndication and DVD sales. These concerns are fairly modern, and crafting the perfect series finale is largely uncharted territory.

There’s a reason why so few TV shows end well.  Unlike movies or books, television shows are open-ended.  They end when they end, and when they end is controlled not only by the showrunners, but by the network, the ratings, and the whims of the public.  It’s getting more common these days for shows to announce their own end-dates, but this a relatively new phenomenon.  Most shows go until they’re no longer financially viable, and when that happens your chances of getting a satisfying ending are relatively low.  Most television shows stumble to the finish line in a confused mess of sagging plotlines, creative differences, low ratings, and audience fatigue.

Indy Zoeller at Unreality looks at five series that wrapped up artfully, and analyzes the reasons they worked so well. Do you agree with his selections? Four of the series I've never seen, and the other-well, I still haven't seen the final episode. Link

When the Corporate States of America map came out, I was disappointed not to see KFC as the brand associated with Kentucky. That is corrected in this Restaurant Map of the U.S. from Thrillist. Now, the definition of restaurant here covers chains, fast food, single food brands, and even coffee shops if they are most appropriate for a state. See the full-size version and the reasoning behind each state decision as well. Link -via Geekologie

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A dog raps about how great his life is, as dogs will do. Some language might be considered NSFW, unless you're a dog. Performed by Jester Jacobs. -via Tastefully Offensive

Have you ever wondered how soccer balls got that fascinating design of hexagons and pentagons? They weren't always so.

Once upon a time, soccer balls (or footballs, depending on where you hail from) were inflated pig bladders wrapped in leather. One variation was an ancient Chinese game called “tsu chu,” using a ball stuffed with feathers. In medieval England, players used leather-covered wine bottles filled with cork shavings (to make them easily retrievable if they fell in the river). It wasn’t until 1844, when Charles Goodyear patented vulcanized rubber, that soccer balls started taking shape. Literally.

But the design of those earlier balls was made of 18 stitched panels: six sections that contained three stripes each. The hexagon/pentagon design was conceived by someone you might recognize. Read all about it at mental_floss. Link

(Image credit: Flickr user Telstar Logistics)

Taung Kalat is a Buddhist monastery build on top of a tall volcanic plug in Burma. Although monks no longer live there, the site is considered to be the home of 37 Nats, or Buddhist spirits. It is also home to a large troop of feral monkeys. To get there, you must climb 777 steps, which you can see in pictures at Kuriositas, along with closer looks at the architecture and the gorgeous view from the top. Link -via the Presurfer

(Image credit: Flickr user Oriol Gascón)

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A guy meets a blind date in a restaurant and his brain goes into overdrive, with an epic struggle between the logical and inhibited left side and the emotional, impulsive right side. This animated short from Josiah Haworth, Joon Shik Song and Joon Soo Song of Ringling College of Art and Design is part of Cartoon Brew's 4th annual Student Animation Festival. Link -via Viral Viral Videos

Jürgen Horn and Mike Powell are settling into their new home in Iceland, but found that much of the country is inaccessible because there are few roads. So they took a tour by airplane, and Jürgen said, "After our first flight Iceland made so much more sense!!!" It was difficult to select one of the many photographs of the countryside, because the terrain varies so much. Check out the full fascinating set at Iceland for 91 Days. Link

How to educate the public about the new laws governing marijuana use in Washington state? The Seattle Police Department has a great idea. They will be at the Hempfest pot rally this weekend -giving out bags of Doritos, each bag with a sticker outlining the new laws.

Because while stoners have no problem ignoring a leaflet, police recognize that it's nearly impossible to turn down a bag of Doritos.

"Distributing salty snacks at a festival celebrating hemp, I think, is deliberately ironic enough that people will accept them in good humor," says police department spokesman Sergeant Sean Whitcomb. "We want to make sure people learn the rules and that they respect the vote."

The labels on the snack-sized bags will direct festival attendees to the SPD's post-legalization FAQ titled "Marijwhatnow?" which went viral last November, reminding citizens that possessing up to an ounce of pot is allowed, but selling and growing the stuff remains illegal (until licenses are issued later this year by the state).

With funding for the project coming entirely from the privately run Seattle Police Foundation, police say they plan to distribute about 1,000 bags of Doritos over the weekend.

Link  -via Slate