Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the surface of the moon, has died. He gave the world a quote on that occasion on July 20, 1969, that will live in history: "That is one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind." Armstrong's family released a statement through NASA. Here is a small portion:
Neil Armstrong was also a reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job. He served his Nation proudly, as a navy fighter pilot, test pilot, and astronaut. He also found success back home in his native Ohio in business and academia, and became a community leader in Cincinnati.
He remained an advocate of aviation and exploration throughout his life and never lost his boyhood wonder of these pursuits.
As much as Neil cherished his privacy, he always appreciated the expressions of good will from people around the world and from all walks of life.
While we mourn the loss of a very good man, we also celebrate his remarkable life and hope that it serves as an example to young people around the world to work hard to make their dreams come true, to be willing to explore and push the limits, and to selflessly serve a cause greater than themselves.
The cause of death was complications after a cardiovascular procedure. Armstrong was 82. Link -via mental_floss
Those of a certain age will recall "gag boxes," which are little jokes hidden inside a small box. You gave (or just showed) them to people like a greeting card. Irving Fishlove, founder of H. Fishlove and Co. novelties, popularized the little boxes in the 1920s and '30s. Collector's Weekly talks to novelty collectors Mardi and Stan Timm about gag boxes.
Collectors Weekly: What’s with the toilets?
Mardi: Toilets were Irving Fishlove’s thing. Well, anything to do with elimination, really. Fishlove focused on toilets when, in 1924, TootsieToy started making doll-house furniture using a new injection-molding process. One of the items they made was a toilet.
When Fishlove looked at that toilet, he didn’t see doll-house furniture. He saw funny. And so he started making all kinds of gags using this little toilet. The beauty of it was that Fishlove could use the same toilet in any gag box. His strategy was pretty ingenious, actually. He would just order tons of these toilets for gag boxes. All he had to do was change the wording on the box. For example, we have one that looks like a stop sign in a stand, and it says, “Parking Limit 30 Minutes.” And when you open it up, there’s a toilet inside.
Of course, gag boxes weren't limited to toilets -any joke would do, as you'll learn in the interview, along with plenty of pictures to illustrate the concept. Link
Look! Look! Up there! It's a leaderboard! The new feature at the top of the page shows you important things you should read here at Neatorama: open contests you can enter and win, exclusive articles, and particularly hot posts that may have aged off the front page. How handy! Try it out: just click on any of the pictures to go to the post it describes. Use the arrows on either end to find more featured items. With the leaderboard here at all times, this weekend column might be shorter or possibly unnecessary, but you know we'll always find a way to give you the information you need. Here's what went on this past week.
In the What Is It? game, the little hatchet-looking thing is actually a cigar box opener. The notch is for removing nails. The first commenter who knew that was just a guess, who wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! The real clue was at the What Is It? blog, where you'd read that it was only a few inches long. The funniest answer was from GlenW, who said, "Years after George Washington became famous for chopping down that cherry tree his less known cousin Hank started making and selling these as souvenirs to tourists at The White House during Washington's presidency." For that, he also wins a t-shirt! Find out the answers to all the mystery items of the week at the What Is It? blog, and stay tuned for the next What Is It? game at Neatorama.
Pinterest is a popular image-based social network you should try out. Whether you are a new or established Pinterest user, you can win great prizes in the Neatorama 'Pin To Win' Contest! You'll find the contest instructions in the post. Good luck!
The post that got the most comments was 10 Millenials Say Thanks But No Thanks to Cars and Houses. The only other posts that got any comments to speak of at all were the contests. Are you intimidated by the new comment system? Have you put off registering a Neatorama account? You needn't be afraid. We won't spam you. The registration system is only to keep the spammers and abusive commenters out. YOU are certainly welcome in! And sooner or later we are going to roll out rewards for commenters, and you'll want to be ready when that happens! The instructions for, and the benefits of, registering with Neatorama are right here.
So, are your kids back at school yet? Schedules vary so much across the United States. The great thing about online shopping is that web stores cater to a worldwide customer base. At the NeatoShop, you'll find kid's school items, office stuff, and geeky giftsall year 'round, so if you want something really special and personal for your kids to take to school, you can find it at the NeatoShop.
Now, this is real improvisational theater, with a twist. Kids are given a vague scenario, such as "pretend to be a salesman and a customer" in this case. Then adults act out what came up. There's a series of these Kid Snippet videos by BoredShortsTV. Link -via Metafilter
It's the muntjac deer and the kangaroo vs. the team of two lemurs! Will Mojo the soccer star deer get the ball past the lemur guard and onto the porch goal? The crowd is on the edge of their seats. The lemur is distracted. The deer is determined. Who will win? This video is from Exotic Experience in Orlando, Florida. -via Buzzfeed
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.
Do you ever read the credits for a movie? If you don't, you're missing some gems that pop up every now and then.
1. An American Werewolf in London (1981) had an end title congratulating Prince Charles and Princess Diana on their recent wedding.
2. The Beatles' 1965 film Help! was "dedicated to Elias Howe who invented the sewing machine in 1846."
3. Political correctness and feminism took hold in Slam Dance (1987). The "best boy" is credited as "best person."
4. Solomon and Sheba (1959) features a credit for "orgy sequence advisor."
5. The making of The Cotton Club (1965) involved so much litigation that the credits even included one for the law firm representing the successful litigants.
6. The Marsupials: The Howling III (1987) has a credit to the restaurant director for his Eggs Benedict.
Don't recognize the name Kenny Baker? He's R2D2! Baker was inside the robot for all six Star Wars movies. In honor of his 78th birthday, mental_floss has ten facts you might not know about Baker, whose career has been much more than just the little droid. Link
Jerry Nelson, one of the original Muppeteers, died last night after a battle with cancer. Nelson was already a professional puppeteer when Jim Henson hired him to fill in while Frank Oz served in the military in the 1960s. Although his Muppet credits are numerous, Nelson was best known as The Count.
With the exception of the Count, his characters were never quite as huge as the Kermits or Miss Piggys or Elmos of the world. But Muppet fans know how many terrific and lovable characters he played — Herry Monster, Biff, Floyd, Dr. Strangepork, Gobo Fraggle, Pa Gorg, the Trash Heap — and Jerry was always the perfect guy for any one-shot character, be it a Whatnot, an Anything Muppet, a monster, a Frackle, or a shoddily constructed ventriloquist’s dummy. I imagine anyone who’s ever gone through the process of ascending from casual Muppet fan to major geek has had the experience of realizing just how many hundreds (thousands?) of characters Jerry played, and being amazed by it. (Just check out the “puppeteer credits” of his Muppet Wiki page for further proof.)
Jerry had the most perfect announcer voice a TV series could ask for, and it was put to good use on The Muppet Show, in “Pigs in Space,” “Veterinarian’s Hospital,” “Bear on Patrol,” and even Elmo’s World.
Nelson was 78. That's 78. Seventy-eight years old. Link -via reddit
Just look at this pineapple! I want that at my next party -or right now, whichever comes first. This was made by food artist Kari Jo Skogquist. See more pictures of it at Laughing Squid. Link
These insects look scary enough in daylight, then they glow in the dark!
This remarkable species of South American cockroach, Lucihormetica luckae, owes its fluorescence to bacteria. The spots on the dark brown area of its carapace are pits inhabited by microbes that glow under fluorescent light.
A recent analysis of these creatures’ bioluminescence demonstrates that they and their cousin species glow at the same wavelengths as a toxin-producing beetle that lives in their area, suggesting that the roaches are mimicking a deadly neighbor to avoid getting picked off by predators.
Tim Blais wrote the geekiest-ever lyrics to the tune of Adele's "Rolling in the Deep." It's about CERN's Large Hadron Collider and its mission to find the Higg-Boson subatomic particle. The lyrics are at the YouTube page and in an article about Blais' A Capella Science project at Scientific AmericaN. Link -via Metafilter
Each Monarch butterfly is beautiful, but when they swarm by the millions, it's an amazing sight! Learn some facts about these amazing butterflies, and see wonderful photographs at Environmental Graffiti. Link
It's not easy being second banana. Here, Luigi sings a song to Princess Peach about his feelings of unrequited love in the shadow of his more popular brother. This almost made me tear up until I remembered it's about a video game. -via Geekosystem
DC comics writer Karl Kesel is selling his personal collection of comic books going back to his childhood. Some of the early editions of those comics are pretty valuable, and sentimental, too. But the 53-year-old Kesel has a good reason for selling: he and his wife Myrna have adopted a baby boy who was born addicted to heroin. The sale proceeds will help defray adoption and medical expenses.
Karl bought many of those comics at The Sweet Shop in Victor, N.Y. The stories frame his childhood and brought him to the drawing board.
“It’s so touching to me that he’s willing to sacrifice something he loves so much to help us have a family,” Myrna says. “It’s a big deal, to let all those comics go.”
It’s a fair trade, Karl thinks. An investment in the miracle that continues to unfold, and the baby who screeches with delight each time his father sings to him.
Dr. Catherine Baucom was on her way to the Elliot Mastology Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where a patient was waiting for her to perform surgery on Wednesday morning. But an accident on I-10 created a huge traffic jam in which hundreds of cars were stopped. That's when Baucom took matters into her own hands, creating a scene right out of a Hollywood movie. She recognized the neighborhood, and knew a colleague that lived nearby.
"Catherine called, she was outside my house. She said 'Hey do you have a bike?' I walked outside and said yea, its a kids bike," said Dr. Brian Barnett. After a quick test run, Dr. Baucom decided the bike was her only choice to get to the hospital. "I got the air pump out and aired the tires up as much as I could."
He gladly loaned her his seven year old daughter's bike and helmet and the nearly six foot tall surgeon resumed her journey to the surgery center.
"It was hot pink and small," Dr. Baucom said, describing the bike. "The helmet was pink with princesses." He added he was laughing so much he couldn't get video of her before she peddled away. "But she did utilize the plastic basket on front, to put her cell phone in. Showed her experience with the bike."
She says she traveled down Tara Boulevard, onto Fairway Drive, crossed Jefferson Highway and over to Essen Lane. When she reached I10, she was stopped by police. After explaining the circumstances and where she was headed, she was escorted through to meet her patient.
The police couldn't resist taking some video of the doctor. Link -via Fark
