In the latest mental_floss video, John Green introduces us to college sports mascots that will make you laugh, or at least scratch your head. Often, the publicity potential and t-shirt sales both trump the intimidation factor.
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French artist Anne-Catherine Becker-Echivard builds dioramas for her years-long ongoing series Les Temps Modernes (Modern Times). After spending months getting each detail right for a scene, she adds fresh fish heads to the character's bodies, photographs them, and eats the rest of the fish. See a selection at My Modern Met.
Link | Artist's site -via Laughing Squid
It's once again time for our collaboration with the wonderfully entertaining What Is It? Blog. Do you know what the pictured item is? Can you guess? Or can you make up something totally wacky?
Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many guesses as you'd like in separate comments. Post no URLs or weblinks, as doing so will forfeit your entry. Two winners: the first correct guess and the funniest (albeit ultimately wrong) guess will win T-shirt from the NeatoShop.
Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don't include a selection, you forfeit the prize, see? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts?
For more clues, go to the What Is It? Blog. Good luck!
Update: 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.
PJ McQuade created this ingenius but logical mashup of the badasses from Breaking Bad and Star Wars.
It is available as a 13x19" full bleed giclée print, hand signed and dated. OH, I am including a free 3x4" Darth Heisenberg head waterproof sticker with every print purchased. :)
Continue reading for a better view of Darth Heisenberg.
Sending a cat through a series of tubes sound like a modern internet thing, but this story is from 1897. The New York City Post Office started sending mail across town through a system of pneumatic tubes, which would last until 1953. When the service was instituted, a public ceremony was held, after which postal inspectors and other employees were given a demonstration of the pneumatic system. They saw an artificial orange, a suit of clothing, and a black cat sent through the system. The cat was not happy about it, but it survived. And that was the first of a series of animals eventually sent by mail in this manner. Read the whole story at the Atlantic. Link
How many of the frequency tones in this video can you hear? Turns out I'm alive and not hearing-impaired. But that's it. I heard no other frequencies in this video. But at my age, it appears that's normal. They say the memory is the second thing to go …and I guess hearing is the first. -via Viral Viral Videos
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
The Beatles had just finished their concert at the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium and were relaxing in their suite at the Delmonico Hotel in New York. It was August 28, 1964.
We all have our special dates that have a big influence of effect on the rest of our lives. For the Beatles, this was to be one of those days.
Bob Dylan, a huge hero to each of the Beatles, and his journalist friend Al Aronowitz pushed their way through police and hordes of Beatles fans in the lobby, and eventually made it up the elevator to the Beatles' floor. Even there, they found more police, journalists, the Kingston Trio, and folk singers Peter, Paul, and Mary. After that, they finally made their way into the Beatles' official domain. The boys had just finished their room service meal.
As Dylan stood in the doorway, the boys noticed he was shorter than they thought. Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager, asked Dylan if he's like a drink.
"Cheap wine!" Dylan replied.
Epstein clumsily made introductions all around, and everyone waited while Brian dispatched one of the Beatle aides to fetch Dylan's requested wine. During the wait, the boys asked Dylan if he'd like to take some speed pills with them. Pills, at this point in time, were the Beatles drug of choice. Although illegally obtained, they were not, in themselves, illegal. But Dylan suggested they smoke some marijuana instead.
Brian sheepishly admitted they had never smoked pot before.
Officer Dan Waskiewicz of the Baltimore Police Department responded to a call about a vicious dog chasing kids. He later wrote about the experience:
I followed the dog into an ally to see how it was acting. Going on my own approach, being a dog lover, I got out of my car and called the "vicious dog" over to me. The dog came over with it's tail between it's legs and panting. I grabbed my water bottle and the dog sat down next to me and began licking my pants. I started giving the dog water. I brought the dog over and waited for the pound to show up. My partner was not a fan of dogs and was startled by my approach. I suggested to him that this dog cannot be put down, and should be taken to a shelter. We took it upon ourselves to take the dog to the shelter, and transported it in the back seat in the back of our patrol car. Then I decided that I wanted to keep the dog, and spoke to the shelter about the steps to take to adopt it.
So now "Bo" has a new home with Waskiewicz and two other dogs. There are more pictures and also links to what happened after the story at Modified K9 Blog. Link -via Death and Taxes
The Taipei Zoo in Taiwan saw their first panda birth a month ago. Zookeepers feared that the tiny panda would come to harm from first-time mother Yuan Yuan and cared for the newborn in a separate enclosure. The 39-day-old cub, a female named Yuan Zai, was recently reunited with her mother. Link
Above Average Productions must have seen the Signs for the Homeless stunt, and thought the same things many of our readers did. This video, starring The Bilderbergers (previously), not only satirizes such strange and dubiously-helpful projects, but also makes fun of online fundraising sites, too. -Thanks, Lucas!
Absolute values must be inferred in this graph of Male Grooming Guidelines from Doghouse Diaries. Your opinions may vary. Link
A cat can learn whatever it needs to get what it wants. Since this cat cannot speak Russian, it uses very clear gestures to request a head scratching. -via Tastefully Offensive
"Eclosion" is a new word for me. Minnesotastan knows more about butterflies than anyone else I know. He's posted a lot of butterfly information before, but a post documenting how a Monarch in his yard emerges from its chrysalis and prepares to fly away is fantastic. Important: "helping" a butterfly will likely cause its death.
Now comes the crucial phase; we never disturb a Monarch at this point. He has to hang with his wings vertical and pump fluid from that distended abdomen through those dark veins to "inflate" the wings. If he loses his grip and falls to a flat surface, he has to find somewhere to climb quickly, because if the wings harden in a crinkled shape he will be unable to fly.
Follow the process in many pictures at TYWKIWDBI. Link
Citizen Brick designed a laboratory playset from the TV show Breaking Bad made of 500 pieces of customized LEGO bricks, minifigs, and accessories. It's called the Superlab Playset, and you can purchase one, complete with little Walt, Gus, and Jesse. It's not cheap, but it's perfect for the ultimate Breaking Bad fan. Link -via Laughing Squid
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