A look into the nature of the past from Doghouse Diaries. If you're not familiar with George Santayana, you can find out more about him at Wikipedia, including more quotes. And no matter how you view history, it's still good advice to learn from your mistakes -or someone else's. Link -via Geeks Are Sexy
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The Denver Zoo had a scare on September 3rd when its Malayan tapir went into labor. It was the first tapir birth for the zoo.
Rinny, the zoo's female tapir, was having trouble while giving birth to a calf last month and a staffer freed the newborn from the mother's amniotic sac. After successfully helping to extract the calf, zoo members aided the newborn by performing "mouth to snout rescue breaths," the zoo said in a media release Friday.
The staff helped the calf get liquid out of his lungs and breathe.
"It's always a little scary when something like this happens, but thankfully we all have great resources and training," said Rebecca McCloskey, an assistant curator with the zoo.
The calf is a male the zoo named Dumadi. He is now thriving. Link (with video) -via Arbroath
(Image credit: Denver Zoo)
YouTube cat mixer ignoramusky offers a compilation of cats whose reach exceeds their grasp. The use of the tune "Ride of the Valkyries" makes this compilation all the more effective. The very last kitten is the best, even though (or maybe because) the kitten does not "fail." -via The Daily What
This is a series of tubes at the Google Data Center in The Dalles, Oregon. But it's not the internet; rather, these pipes carry water in and out of the center. They are painted in coordinating Google colors to indicate which is in, which is out, and the water used to carry heat away from the electronics is cooled and reused. Google's data centers are just as obsessively organized in all their systems, as you'll see in a gallery of photographs of their eight locations. Link -via Colossal
(Image credit: Connie Zhou)
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.
The classic song "Hound Dog" was released in 1952 and was number one on the charts for seven weeks. Yes, that was 1952. Okay, before you jump the gun, let me tell you, this original version of "Hound Dog" had nothing to do with Elvis Presley. The first version of "Hound Dog" was recorded by a 25-year-old African-American rhythm and blues singer named Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton. The song was a smash hit and sold almost two million copies. Sadly, "Big Mama" Thornton hardly collected any of the profits she rightfully deserved.
Alright, now lets skip up to the spring of 1956. A young rock and roll singer named Elvis Presley was the hottest act in show business. The hip-shaking Elvis already had number one records and albums and was selling out live concerts all over America. But the red-hot Elvis was currently experiencing his first bit of comeuppance.
In April of '56 Elvis committed to a two-week booking in Las Vegas at the Venus room of the new Frontier Hotel. Elvis was declared a flop by Las Vegas audiences and critics alike, playing nightly to half-bored adults who failed to fall under his spell as their teenaged kids had. Being a flop in Las Vegas (or anywhere) is no fun, and after giving a less-than-spectacular show to a less-than-enthused crowd one night, Elvis drifted over to another hotel to take in a show.
The group onstage was Freddie Bell and the Bellboys. They gave their own version of Willa Mae's "Hound Dog," a more souped-up, rockier version. Elvis broke up when he first heard the funny song with its strange lyrics. Soon, Elvis was coming to see Freddie and his Bellboys every night, and yes, every time they sang "Hound Dog," Elvis would crack up hysterically.
What happens when a cat becomes YouTube famous. Which is what might have been, if producer TomSka had a camera ready that one day a cat walked in while he was playing a video game. -via a comment at Metafilter
In this experiment, you can literally "taste the rainbow," especially if you use Skittles. What you do is make colored water of different densities by dissolving Skittles. A microwave helps. Then you carefully layer the different colors of water, with the most sugary solution on the bottom. If I were to try this, I'd use sugar water with some Kool-Aid powder instead of Skittles. Get more detailed instructions at io9. Link -via Fark
(Image credit: Chem Demo)
Scientists are mostly a humble bunch, as they spend a big part of their lives in search of knowledge or teaching it to others without much hoopla. And while incompetent people often don't know they are incompetent, professional scientists are often smart enough to think they don't quite measure up. And while winning a Nobel Prize is exciting and comes with perks such as cash and recognition for your subject, it can also lead to feelings of inadequacy.
Some prize winners may let the award go to their heads, but others are almost paralysed by insecurity after being singled out for doing no more than their day job. In 2001, Tim Hunt at Cancer Research UK shared the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine with Paul Nurse and Leland Hartwell, for discovering proteins that control cell division. "I found it pretty hard to bear at first, and was extremely nervous that the Swedes would realise their mistake and rescind the prize at the last minute," Hunt says.
Weeks after the 2001 announcement, Hunt ran into Paul Nurse, now President of the Royal Society. The encounter went something like this: "Oh Tim," Nurse said. "I've just had the most ghastly weekend – I felt so inadequate." Take a long look at those who have received the honour and no other response makes as much sense.
And there are some other problems that can come with the prestigious award. Read about them at The Guardian. Link -via Not Exactly Rocket Science
(Image credit: Flickr user Abhijit Bhaduri)
Despite a global ban on the ivory trade, elephants are still being killed just for their tusks. In most developed countries, the use of ivory (outside of antiques) is about as chic as clubbing a baby seal. So who is buying ivory these days? Bryan Christy of National Geographic looks for answers in the Philippines.
My goal in meeting Garcia is to understand his country’s ivory trade and possibly get a lead on who was behind 5.4 tons of illegal ivory seized by customs agents in Manila in 2009, 7.7 tons seized there in 2005, and 6.1 tons bound for the Philippines seized by Taiwan in 2006. Assuming an average of 22 pounds of ivory per elephant, these seizures represent about 1,745 elephants. According to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the treaty organization that sets international wildlife trade policy, the Philippines is merely a transit country for ivory headed to China. But CITES has limited resources. Until last year it employed just one enforcement officer to police more than 30,000 animal and plant species. Its assessment of the Philippines doesn’t square with what Jose Yuchongco, chief of the Philippine customs police, told a Manila newspaper not long after making a major seizure in 2009: “The Philippines is a favorite destination of these smuggled elephant tusks, maybe because Filipino Catholics are fond of images of saints that are made of ivory.” On Cebu the link between ivory and the church is so strong that the word for ivory, garing, has a second meaning: “religious statue.”
But it's not just the Philippines. Read more about the continuing global ivory trade at NatGeo. Link
(Image credit: Brent Stirton)
Taylor Swift's song "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" gets the Breaking Bad treatment in this parody from Teddie Films. May contain spoilers if you aren't caught up on the TV show. -via Metafilter
Farlow’s Scientific Glassblowing is a small company that makes high-end anatomical models for medical research. Veins, arteries, and other biological systems are made of glass to give a clear look, and sometimes the tubes are filled with flowing fake blood or medical instruments.
Their anatomically correct models can be designed to simulate blood flow, teach placement of catheters and angioplasty devices, or simply test or demo new surgical gizmos. Individual arteries, veins, and capillaries are shaped and fused together, one at a time. Ground-glass joints are added at the exposed ends so a head, say, can be connected to the carotid arteries should customers want to expand their model.
But it's also art. Gary Farlow and his team are skilled artisans and their products are as beautiful as they are useful. See more of them at Wired. Link
(Image credit: Garry McLeod)
Oskar the Blind Cat is all grown up now, and gets around as well as a sighted cat. He has even learned to open a door! -via I Can Has Cheezburger
Previously: more Oskar videos.
Hi y'all! This week Neatorama welcomed a new author, Broderick Ives Engelhard. That's a mouthful, so you can just call him Brody. He's a recent graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, and has his own art blog called Ives Street. That's where I found out how excited Brody was to join our little crew. We are happy to have him!
For those of you with mobile gadgets that take pictures, we are proud to announce that Neatorama is now on Instagram! Follow Neatorama on Instagram for an easy way to share your pictures with us.
Our feature articles this week gave us a little of everything: history, literature, science, pop culture, fashion, travel, and even poetry!
Jill Harness showed us The 12 Best Geeky Costumes for Halloween 2012. It's the kind of post we do every year, and every year people come up with impressive new costume ideas.
Adrienne Crezo brought us Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued from the Past, by Ransom Riggs as part of Neatorama's Book Excerpt series. We gave away a copy of the book to a random commenter, and the winner is Frenchmell. Congratulations, Frenchmell!
Eddie Deezen introduced us to Jimmy Nicol, the Beatles Drummer for Ten Days, and told us about The Strange Death of Alfalfa.
Salem Witch Trials: The Fungus Theory was from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader.
Mental-floss magazine gave us 10 Places to See Before They Die.
Ig® Nobel Limericks: Execution, Hang Length, and Beakers came from the Annals of Improbable Research.
The Neatorama Halloween blog has a lot of items you won't find on the main page. This week we had videos of a musical Halloween, a scary Halloween, and a funny Halloween (among others), plus a video tour of Knott's Scary Farm, and the latest holiday costumes, decorations, and food!
You need to check into NeatoBambino as well, for treats like a child's threatening letter to the Tooth Fairy and the World's Fastest Stroller.
In the What Is It? game this week, the mystery item is a woodworker's compass, a pencil or scribe placed into one of the holes would make a circle of the appropriate size when the compass was rotated around the spike. Berhard had the correct answer first, and wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! The funniest answer came from robopanda, who guessed it to be an extreme incense burner for especially smelly hippies! That's definitely worth a t-shirt. Thanks to everyone who played this week! Find out the purposes to all the mystery items of the week at the What Is It? blog.
The post with the most comments this week was Rate Your Poop With Movie Titles, followed by Ukraine’s Anime Girl and Real Barbie Meet Face-to-Barely-Human-Face. Those posts are still open for comments if you want to put in your two cents worth.
When you get caught up on everything here at Neatorama and all the sub-blogs, remember you'll find extra content at our Facebook page, too! And be sure to follow Neatorama on Twitter and Pinterest! Oh yeah, Flipboard, too! Have a great week!
Now that Paranormal Activity 4 or 5 or whatever is in theaters, Screen Junkies gives the series the Honest Trailer treatment. Ha! -via Daily of the Day
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