This musical interlude was produced from the sounds made in a laboratory during chemistry experiments. There are links to the individual experiments at the YouTube page, in case any of them intrigues you. -via Everlasting Blort
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
If you discovered a new species of prehistoric arthropod fossil with scissor-like appendages, what you you name it? Name it Kooteninchela deppi, in honor of the actor who played Edward Scissorhands!
“When I first saw the pair of isolated claws in the fossil records of this species I could not help but think of Edward Scissorhands,” says researcher David Legg, who conducted the research into the fossil as part of his PhD at Imperial College London, in a statement. “Even the genus name, Kootenichela, includes the reference to this film as ‘chela’ is Latin for claws or scissors. In truth, I am also a bit of a Depp fan and so what better way to honour the man than to immortalise him as an ancient creature that once roamed the sea?”
Kooteninchela deppi scoured the sea floor for other animals to eat. It is thought to be an ancestor of modern scorpions, centipedes, and crabs. Link
(Image credit: Imperial College London)
In a strange case of nominative determinism, a Worthington, Ohio, doctor was arrested for drunk driving. Elizabeth Unk was arrested after striking a bicyclist with her vehicle.
Unk, 38, is charged with one count of vehicular assault and two counts of driving a vehicle under the influence of alcohol, drugs or a combination of them.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol determined that Unk's blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit.
Unk's driver's license has been suspended.
The incident happened last September, and the grand jury returned an indictment against Dr. Unk this week. Link -via Arbroath
Is it ballet or morning calisthenics? This juvenile bearded dragon is said to be "waving," which some say is a dragon sign of deference to a superior, but I think this critter's style puts him into the category of "performer." -via Tastefully Offensive
Famed Swiss watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet made a beautiful and complex watch for Marie Antoinette. The works were mostly gold, and its value is hard to estimate not only because of its history, but because of its workmanship. But Marie Antoinette never wore the watch that eventually became known as the Queen.
The watch ultimately took 44 years to complete. In the interim, the French Revolution and the resulting European upheaval led to the death of both the man who likely commissioned the watch and its intended owner. (Marie Antoinette, of course, fell under the guillotine. Seventeen years after her death, an incensed crowd, convinced that von Fersen had conspired to assassinate Sweden’s would-be king, beat him to death in a Stockholm square.) Breguet died in September 1823. His son, a talented horologer in his own right, finished the masterpiece in 1827. It traveled in the coat pockets of a French nobleman and later ended up in the collection of Sir David Lionel Salomons, a British polymath who brought the first car shows to England and patented an idea for buoyant soap. Salomons left his watch collection to his daughter Vera, a globe-trotting nurse who settled in Jerusalem after World War I and later used her father’s money to build the museum—and to house his collection of watches.
What made Breguet’s work so significant was his skill as both a watchmaker and a designer. His creations have pristine faces, delicate hands that end in apple-shaped tips, and movements that appear as complex as a computer circuit. The Queen was at once immensely complicated—it had all the features of a cathedral clock in the space of a pocket watch—and beguilingly elegant. Breguet even made a clear crystal face that allowed the owner to see the movement of the gears underneath.
Skip ahead to 1983, and the watch is stolen from the museum, along with other valuable watches. The investigation led nowhere for 23 years. But then, it gets really interesting again. Read the saga of the watch Wired. Link
When his favorite song, "Make You Feel My Love" comes on, Rev wakes up and has to sing along with Adele! This dog may not pronounce all the words correctly, but he sure has an emotive voice. -via Viral Viral Videos
The following is an article from Uncle John's Unstoppable Bathroom Reader.
(Image credit: Flickr user Ed Schipul)
What would Porter the Wonder Dog have eaten 200 years ago, before there was Alpo or Dog Chow? Here's the history of the multi-billion-dollar dog food industry.
CHOW DOWN
* More than 2,000 years ago, Roman poet and philosopher Marcus Terentius Varro wrote the first farming manual. In it he advised giving farm dogs barley bread soaked in milk, and bones from dead sheep.
* During the Middle Ages, it was common for European royalty to have kennels for their hounds. Kennel cooks would make huge stews, mostly grains and vegetables with some meat or meat byproducts -the hearts, livers, and lungs of various livestock.
* Dogs in common households had meager diets. They were fed only what their owners could spare. A normal domesticated dog's diet consisted of crusts of bread, bare bones, potatoes, cabbage, or whatever else they could scrounge on their own.
* In the 18th century, farm dogs, which had to be fairly healthy to do their jobs, were regularly fed mixes of grains and lard. In cities, you could make a living by searching the streets for dead horses, cutting them up, and selling the meat to wealthy dog owners.
* There were exceptions: The very wealthy, throughout history, have fed their pet dogs fare that was much better than what most humans ate. In the 1800s Empress Tzu Hsi of China was known to feed her Pekingese shark fins, quail breasts, and antelope milk. European nobility fed their dogs roast duck, cakes, candies, and even liquor.
LUXURY FOOD
The in the mid-1800s, the Industrial Revolution created a growing middle class with more luxury and more leisure time, pets began to be regarded as "luxury items" by everyday folk. Result: pet food became more closely scrutinized.
The following is an article from the book Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Salutes the Armed Forces.
Often called -in error- the Congressional Medal of Honor, it isn't granted by Congress. The awards are made by the Department of Defense. Congress merely passes the legislation. And sometimes only after a lot of debate.
GO NAVY! NAVY 1, ARMY 0
Early in the Civil War, the idea of a medal for valor was proposed to General-in-Chief of the Army Winfield Scott, but the general shot it down because he thought medals were a European affectation. The U.S. Navy had no such objections -and neither did Congress. So when Iowa senator James W. Grimes, chairman of the Naval Committee, introduced a bill on December 9, 1861, to "promote the efficiency of the Navy" by distributing "medals of honor," Congress passed it, authorizing 200 medals "which shall be bestowed upon such petty officers, seamen, landsmen and marines as shall distinguish themselves in by their gallantry in action and other seamanlike qualities during the present war." President Lincoln signed the bill and the Navy Medal of Honor was born.
AND ARMY TIES THE SCORE
Eventually, of course, the Army decided it wanted in on the act. Massachusetts senator Henry Wilson introduced a bill the following February authorizing "the president to distribute medals to privates in the Army of the United States who shall distinguish themselves in battle." This time, Congress debated the resolution for several months, but on July 12, 1862, passed legislation for the Army Medal of Honor. The act authorized the president to distribute 2,000 medals of honor in the name of Congress to noncommissioned officers and privates who distinguish themselves in action, and for "other soldier-like qualities, during the present insurrection." The Navy medals could be awarded for either combat or non-combat heroism, but Army medals were restricted to combat heroism. With these two acts, Congress created an award that grew in prominence in American history.
In March 1863, Congress amended the Army act to make Army officers eligible for the medal, but not officers of the Navy or Marines Corps. The odd arrangement continued until March 3, 1915, when Congress expanded the decoration to include Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard officers.
Since then, there have been three more amendments. The amendment of July 9, 1918, provided for military service abroad, and the amendment of July 25, 1963, provided for the inclusion of women. The following is the criteria for awarding the Medal of Honor as of February 25, 1995:
The Medal of Honor is awarded by the President, in the name of Congress, to a person who, while a member of the Army, distinguishes himself or herself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in action against an enemy of the United States; while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force; or while serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing armed force in which the United States is not a belligerent party. The deed performed must have been one of personal bravery or self-sacrifice so conspicuous as to clearly distinguish the individual above his or her comrades and must have involved risk of life. Incontestable proof of the performance of the service will be exacted and each recommendation for the award of this decoration will be considered on the standard of extraordinary merit.
CONGRESS DEMANDS A RECOUNT
But back in 1916, Congress began questioning if the 2,635 awards that had been made by that point met with statutory requirements; a board of five officers was created to review the records. Civil War awards raised the most questions because of the huge number. Researchers discovered that the very first Civil war medal awarded went retroactively to Assistant Surgeon Bernard J. D. Irwin for heroic action at Apache Pass, Arizona, on February 13-14, 1861, two months before the Civil war began and 16 months before the legislation for the Army medals had passed. Irwin kept his medal, and so did Private Francis E. Brownell of the 11th New York Fire Zouaves, whose actions on May 24, 1861, actually made him the Civil War's first Army recipient.
I put this new Windows 8 advertisement on my own site because, although it's funny, I didn't think it was quite "neat" enough for Neatorama. Then later, I found out something strange about it. No one seems to know what language the actors are speaking!
Native speakers of Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, and Korean declare that it is not any of those languages. The first time I listened to them, the ads sounded as though they contained elements of some Wu topolect, a bit like mangled Shanghainese, but I could also definitely hear bits of Mandarin, albeit with unusual tonal contours and slurring. What was most perplexing of all to me was that, although I was certain that the ads contained Chinese phrases and sentences, every Chinese person to whom I showed them emphatically maintained that they could not understand a single word! In contrast, several non-native speakers of Mandarin said they could pick out a word of Chinese here and there.
Victor Mair of Language Log asked other people who speak different languages if they recognized the language, but still haven't found anyone who understands it. Link -via Metafilter
A child's personal project turned into a documentary Yuck: A 4th Grader's Short Documentary About School Lunch. The film is 19 minutes long and has won several film festival awards. The trailers here are just short clips, but you can find a schedule of screenings at the film site.
In the fall of 2011, fourth grader Zachary Maxwell began asking his parents if he could start packing and bringing his own lunch to school. Unfortunately, they kept insisting that he take advantage of the hot lunch being served at the school. After all, the online menu sounded delicious and the NYC Department of Education (DOE) website assured parents that the meals were nutritious. Zachary wanted to convince his parents that the online menu did not accurately represent what was really being served at his school.
In an effort to prove his point, Zachary started sneaking a small HD camera into the lunchroom to show his parents the truth. Over the next six months, Zachary would continue to gather "inside" footage and research the claims being made by the DOE and the media about the City's public school lunch program.
To the surprise of no one besides his parents, the published menus differed quite a bit from the actual lunches served in schools. To be fair, all the lunches at his elementary school are free, and I've seen much worse. But Zachary Maxwell has a wonderful career ahead of him in filmmaking, journalism, or whatever he decides to do.
The film has a website. Link -via Boing Boing
By the way, Zachary now gets to bring lunch from home. Read more about his experience at the New York Times. Link
Hey, looky up there at the menu bar. Do I see a new sub-blog? Yes! We want to give a big welcome to Twaggies, which is now under the Neatorama umbrella. As a matter of fact, we have the entire archive of Twaggies here with us! In case you're not familiar with Twaggies, they are cartoons illustrating funny Tweets from all kinds of people. And if you find a Twaggie that's particularly funny or meaningful to you, you can get any one of them printed on a t-shirt through the NeatoShop! Or you can look through the most popular Twaggies t-shirts already in the shop. Let's take a look back at other stuff that happened this week, so you can catch up.
John Farrier wrote 8 Ponies and Their Matching Civil War Generals. Bronies will understand, the rest of us can just enjoy it.
Eddie Deezen got to the bottom of a rumor with Did Groucho Really Say That?
Sex in Aladdin: Anatomy of a Rumor was another story about show-biz rumors, from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader.
The Annals of Improbable Research gave us Apples and Oranges: A Comparison.
4 Public Works of Art Gone Terribly Wrong came from mental_floss magazine.
Over at NeatoBambino, Tiffany wrote Visiting the Autry and Learning about the American West.
Alex gave us a book feature, The Resurrectionist, which is an excerpt from The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black by E.B. Hudspeth.
We had a couple of personal posts this week, too. Tiffany wrote Happy Mother's Day about school-made gifts for mothers. Then David Israel gave us How to Introduce Your Child to the Symphony Orchestra. If you like those, we may have more coming.
Over at our sub-blog Lifestyles of the Cute and Cuddly, the featured pets this week were Lucy and Muffin, from Neatoramanaut Jane Lang, and Blaze, submitted by Neatoramanaut Miki Davis. If you have a photogenic pet, we'd like to feature yours, too! Send your pictures to tips@neatorama.com anytime.
We had two Brainteasers from the Bathroom Readers Institute this week: Touch This and Mouthy Abbreviation. I may have to find another source for puzzles, as the supply is getting thin.
The post with most comments this week was Internet is Destroying the Middle Class. In second place, there was a tie between How to Beat the Lines at Walt Disney World
and GeoGuessr.
The comment of the week was a simple pun from Sham on the Venezuelan toilet paper crisis, but that simple pun was delivered with style:
I guess it's a...
(•_•)
( •_•)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)
...crappy situation.
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH
The most popular post was A Fast Food Purse, followed by Merida Reverts to Original Form and Sex in Aladdin: Anatomy of a Rumor.
The most ♥ed post was by far the graduation speech This is Water. The next most ♥s went to Portland Police Pursuit, and in third place we had a tie between Merida Reverts to Original Form and Curious Kitten and the Bearded Dragons.
The most emailed post was This is Water with Curious Kitten and the Bearded Dragons coming in second.
All of us here at Neatorama want to say a hearty CONGRATULATIONS! to all the 2013 graduates, whether you are graduating from preschool, trade school, boot camp, high school, college, or you're finally getting that PhD. Well done, y'all!
French animation designer Andry Rajoelina imagined comic book superheroes in the act of walking their sidekicks to school. Aren't they adorable? Link -via The Mary Sue
The annual Dance Off with the Star Wars Stars is back as Disney's Hollywood Studios launch their Star Wars Weekends. This year's dances include "Bad," "Fight for Your Right to Party," "Hey Ya," and since this is the first Dance-off since Disney bought Lucasfilm, a special appearance by Jedi Mickey. You can see all the numbers on video at Inside the Magic. Link
Tulsa, Oklahoma, is not the largest city around. It's not even the largest city in Oklahoma. But they are thinking about putting in a bid to host the 2024 Olympics.
"I see this as a great opportunity, I really do,” said Tulsa’s mayor, who probably has a name like Dewey Bartlett. Oh. His name really is Dewey Bartlett. Anyway: "If we come off looking a little lighthearted on it, so much the better, but we are serious about putting our name out there."
Although Tulsa has almost 400,000 people, the Olympic Committee might consider it a small town. ESPN Playbook had a little fun with the idea, and made a template for small-town Olympic bids. All you have to do is fill in the name of your town. A sample:
Gym Sports Venue: High School Gym and the YMCA
Basketball, volleyball, wrestling, badminton, whatever handball is, gymnastics -- we can host them all. The main gym floors at our high school and our town’s YMCA have lines for basketball and volleyball. There is also a full-sized basketball court at the middle school, but the floor is pretty old and it is slippery even if it’s just been swept.
If these venues are not enough to accommodate all the gym sports, the badminton competition can be moved to any number of backyards in our town. Gymnastics have not been part of our gym curriculum since the late '80s -- again thanks to insurance issues. (People will sue you nowadays if their kid gets hurt falling off a pommel horse.) However, we probably have most of our gymnastics equipment still in some equipment closet somewhere.
The rest covers aquatic, equestrian, and other sports venues, athlete housing, transportation, and production for the opening and closing ceremonies. Link -via mental_floss
Look at this: A historic brick temple raised up two stories high on scaffolding. Just imagine the strength and care that went into this feat of engineering! The Provo (Utah) Tabernacle burned in 2010, and although the interior is gone, the brick facade survived. To restore the building, it has been raised up so that a two-floor foundation basement can be built underneath it. Read about the project and see more pictures at Gizmodo. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user Brian Hansen)
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