It's so simple! You can find the answer to any problem on Twitter. This Twaggie was illustrated by David Barneda from a Tweet by Andy Richter. Check out Twaggies for the latest in illustrated Tweets to grab a smile anytime. And if you have a favorite, you can even have it printed on a t-shirt! Link
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
Little Elisabetta sang an Italian children's song in hard rock style. Then musician Christian Ice (who may or may not be her father -he didn't say) wrote an original song to accompany her. You can see the original video before the music was added. She may grow up to be a star! -via Daily of the Day
March Madness is here, and the NCAA tournament has so far been a bit different: Harvard advances by beating New Mexico, La Salle upset Kansas State, and Florida Gulf Coast beat Georgetown. And last year's champion, Kentucky, isn't even in the tournament. We may have a Final Four made up of schools that have never been there before! Amid all the excitement, I hope you find time to catch up on what's been happening this past week at Neatorama.
Alex posted a couple of really neat photographic collections on the Spotlight Blog: Tunnels to Manhattan and The Guardians of Time.
Eddie Deezen brought us The Origins of the Terms Cheesecake and Beefcake.
The Peepal Conclave illustrated the selection of a new pope in marshmallow Peeps.
The “Name Number” for Geology, and for Other Professions was the contribution from the Annals of Improbable Research.
Uncle John's Bathroom Reader gave us a look back at the eruption of Mount St. Helens.
And The Unauthorized Biography of the Easter Bunny came from mental_floss magazine.
We had four Brainteasers this week from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader: The Dishonest Bellhop, Two Jugs, Twin Birthdays, and Party Punch. Did you figure any of them out before looking at the answer?
In the What Is It? game, the pictured tool is a spoke wrench, suitable for holding pieces of wire or as a spoke-grip for screwing up the spokes of suspension wheels, such as are used in bicycles and other light vehicles. Steve Pauk knew what it was, and wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! The funniest answer of the week was from Paul D., who said it was a Higgs Boson. We've been looking all over for that, haven't we? Paul also wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! Thanks to all who participated, even if you just gave a heart. See the answers to all the mystery items of the week at the What is It? blog.
Those who subscribe to NeatoMail had a chance to win Star Wars prizes last week! Congratulations to the winners, Ponder Variety, Portiap, and John Scallorn. Look in the right sidebar to sign up for Neatomail, so you can be in on the next contest. And look for those Star Wars prizes for sale in the NeatoShop!
The post with the most comments this week was Two Jugs, followed by The Tongue-Mounted Toothbrush, and The Origins of the Terms Cheesecake and Beefcake. You can still join in the conversations on these or any other posts.
The comment of the week came from Joseph Francis, who responded to the title of the video Dosvedanya, Winter! by saying, "Dosvedanya Winter? I had the biggest crush on her in high school. Last I heard she ended up marrying Arrivederci Roma." A good pun will win the accolade every time!
The most popular post of the week was Two Jugs, which admittedly has a provocative title, followed by Baby Pears and Twin Birthdays.
Usability tip of the week: If you like a particular post on Neatorama, share it with your family and friends! Click on the title of a post, and you'll see buttons at the bottom that make it easy to email a post to someone you know who'd appreciate it. Other buttons let you share it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or G+. Your friends will thank you!
Easter is only a week from tomorrow, so get your Easter supplies ordered from the NeatoShop as soon as possible!
Chlorox Tooth Paste? I had to look it up to see if this was a hoax. I found a 1920 publication with a letter of praise to Nulyne Laboratories followed by an offer to send the toothpaste to any dentist free of charge to use on their patients. Mind you, current Chlorox products are not recommended for use on your teeth. Link
We learn as children that there is no land at the North Pole -it's the Arctic Ocean. But most of the time, it's covered with ice and polar bears. That was once upon a time, because the ice is melting and the Arctic Ocean is opening up, diminishing the polar bears' habitat, and worrying environmentalists. But some are looking at that ocean as an opportunity, as the Arctic Ocean has riches of oil and natural gas beneath it. So who has the rights to those resources? Russia claims all the area north of Siberia to the North Pole. China is investing in Canada, which has natural access to the Arctic. And the U.S. wants to keep rights to shipping lanes as a shortcut between continents. Read about the controversies to come at Smithsonian. Link
(Image credit: Keith Negley)
One Minute Galactica took the audio of the Jurassic Park trailer and synched it with video from Star Wars, which makes more sense than it should. -via Viral Viral Videos
Ted McCagg of Questionable Skills graphs what friendship means in the age of social media. It's a good thing we still have family, although while I'm on the computer on a Friday night, my oldest is dressing up her website and the youngest is playing games on her iPod. Link -via Geeks Are Sexy
High school drummers Nigel, Dylan, Matt, Elias, and Jordan won a school talent show with this routine. I don't doubt it a bit! They supposedly put the routine together in less than a week. -via Everlasting Blort
U.S.News & World Report gives us a list of the most overpaid jobs -which aren't necessarily jobs that pay the most. It's a subjective list in which a person is well-paid for work that's not all that difficult, involves little stress, and provides little benefit in the end. Even some of the people in these occupations agree. Here's a sampling:
Consulting software engineer (median mid-career salary: $123,000). These high-end programmers design and maintain sophisticated computer networks for big companies and other large organizations. But the work can be dry and many such engineers question the value of what they do. Other types of programmers and software engineers rank high on the overpaid list as well.
Brand strategist ($90,700). These advertising or marketing specialists work to improve the image and reputation of companies and their offerings--whether deserved or not. Brand strategists rate the importance of their own work poorly compared with other professionals.
Patent attorney ($170,000). We tend to think of patents as the breakthrough insights of revolutionary inventors, but they're increasingly a form of warfare among corporations seeking to prevent each other from gaining a technology edge. The lawyers who fight those battles are among the highest-paid professionals PayScale surveys.
Read the rest of the list, which is ranked in no particular order. Link -via BroBible
A shelter dog gets a new home in this parody of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme, starring Fido as the shelter dog, and including a celebrity cameo at the end. The lyrics are at the YouTube page. -via Stuff I Stole from the Internet
Life as a cosmonaut in the early days of the Soviet space program was difficult. The crew of the Voskhod 2 mission in 1965 had to not only perform a difficult space mission (featuring the world's first EVA), but then landed off course and had to survive subzero temperatures and wild animals in the Siberian wilderness!
According to the spacecraft’s orientation system they landed deep in the Siberian forest almost 1,250 miles from their target. The crew needed to assess their situation to figure out how long it might take recovery crews to find them. The full seriousness of the situation hit them when they wrestled the hatch opened to find themselves nearly chin deep in snow.
Snowbanks six and a half feet tall surrounded them as did thick birch trees. The sun was hidden behind the clouds. It started to snow, forcing the men back into their spacecraft.
Neither man was too concerned. Belyayev’s childhood dream had been to become a hunter while Leonov had sought the beautiful isolation of the forest as an artistic outlet. It was the wildlife that worried them. The forest, they knew, was home to bears and wolves, unusually aggressive in the spring mating season. Between themselves the cosmonauts had one pistol but ample ammunition.
Rescue crews found them relatively quickly, but getting to the cosmonauts and getting them out was a time-consuming task, made more difficult by the space suits they were wearing. Read the rest of the story at Discovery News. Link -via Greg Laden
Fire is a fascinating thing -at a safe distance. These are "alcohol rocket bottles," meaning a bottle with alcohol burning inside, lit by a laser. They are beautiful, but I wouldn't recommend trying this at home. Not unless you really know what you're doing. -via Viral Viral Videos
The ancient town of Myra in Turkey may sound familiar to you, because St. Nicholas was the bishop of Myra. Another claim to fame for the region is the many ancient ruins one can see there.
Perhaps most striking of all the ancient ruins in Myra are the rock-cut tombs of the ancient Lycian necropolis. Two burial sites, the river necropolis and ocean necropolis, with frontages resembling classical temples, are hewn from the cliffs towering above the town.
You can imagine the years of work that went into carving these tombs out of the cliff faces. See plenty of pictures of them at Urban Ghosts. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user Caleb Maclennan)
You don't have to know these people to smile at the news that they are expecting. Enjoy a collection of clever pregnancy announcements that involve puns, humor, baby shoes, pets, and siblings. Link
(Image credit: PB&J Stories)
Open wide; let's take a look! The view of the inside of a sheepshead fish's mouth reveals several rows of strangely human-looking teeth. That's to help these fish eat everything in sight.
A fully-grown adult sheepshead will have well-defined incisors sitting at the front of the jaw, and molars set in three rows in the upper jaw and two rows in the lower jaw. It has strong, heavy grinders set in the rear of the jaw too, which are particularly important for crushing the shells of its prey. As with humans, this unique combination of teeth helps the sheepshead process a wide-ranging, omnivorous diet consisting of a variety of vertebrates, invertebrates and some plant material.
Why is it called a sheepshead fish? No one knows for sure, but the post at Scientific American has several possible theories, plus a look at some other fish that induce hallucinations. The sheepshead fish doesn't cause hallucinations; in fact it is supposed to be quite tasty. Even with our limited number of teeth. Link -via Boing Boing
(Image credit: VA Institute of Marine Science)
Email This Post to a Friend