After watching the film Prometheus and inspired by a Tweet from Dr. Phil Plait, Steve D set about making a Giger counter. That is, of course, a radiation detector in the style of Alien designer H.R. Giger. See how he did it, with plenty of pictures, at MadArtLab. Link -via Bad Astronomy
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The comedy group Satire melds the awesomeness of NASA's Curiosity mission and the catchy tune of LMFAO's "I'm Sexy and I Know It." Read more about it at the Washington Post. Link -via Metafilter
This seems like a pretty low-key promotion for students, until you realize it was produced 17 years ago! From the YouTube page:
This Public Service Announcement (PSA) was produced in 1995 by the 5th grade students at Ray Bjork school in Helena Montana. The production equipment was made available by the Myrna Loy Center. Cindy Gaffney mentored the students in all phases of production and she also wrote the script. All the Internet possibilities mentioned in the script are today a reality. The production won a local ADDY Award in 1996 for Best PSA.
But then again, these kids grew up to BE the internet generation. A 10-year-old in 1995 would be 20 years old in 2005. Maybe we've just found out who is responsible for LOLcats. -via Dangerous Minds
This interactive map of the U.S. was constructed using Google's autocomplete feature. For each state, the search form was filled in with “Why is [insert state] so “ and the autocomplete results were noted, analysed, sorted, and assigned. At the site, mouseover a state to see what autocomplete terms came up most often. The accompanying post also shows some of the stereotypes generated compared with actual data maps. Link
-via Metafilter, where commenters contributed autocompletes for cities, Canadian provinces, and countries around the world.
Have you ever considered socks as an art medium? The anonymous author of a Tumblr blog called Famous album covers recreated with my socks has, and apparently has quite a selection of socks to use! There are two pages of album covers now, and we hope there will be more to come. Link -via Wil Wheaton
The English Department at San Jose State University sponsors the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for the opening sentence to "the worst of all possible novels." The competition is named for author Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, a popular producer of purple prose. The 2012 winners have been announced. Cathy Bryant of Manchester, England won the top prize for this entry:
As he told her that he loved her she gazed into his eyes, wondering, as she noted the infestation of eyelash mites, the tiny deodicids burrowing into his follicles to eat the greasy sebum therein, each female laying up to 25 eggs in a single follicle, causing inflammation, whether the eyes are truly the windows of the soul; and, if so, his soul needed regrouting.
Winners in subcategories such as crime and children's literature and other dishonorable mentions, can be found at the contest site. Link -via The Guardian
It sounds like the beginning of a joke: what do you get when you cross a camel with a llama? You get a cama, thanks to the efforts of the Camel Reproduction Center in Dubai. Camas are said to be friendlier than a camel and hardier than a llama. The cama pictured here is named Rama and was born in 1998. Three others have been produced since then, and as a camel and a llama have the same number of chromosomes, it is believed that camas may be able to reproduce. The cama is just one of several animals profiled in the Cracked article The 5 Coolest Pets Humanity Has Bred into Existence. Link
(Image credit: Taylor Llamas)
When a student couldn't finish his summer reading assignments, he turned to Yahoo! Answers for help. He asked for someone to summarize the novel The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep And Never Had To for him, as the beginning of school was only ten days away.
The author of the book, DC Pierson, is a comedian, actor, and writer, whom some might know only from an Allstate ad. He responded to the query about his book, not by giving him a summary, but by giving him a reason to read it.
I'm not going to sit here and act like I didn't sometimes not read assigned books for class in high school. Even though it's referenced once in my book, the book you're avoiding reading, I've never actually read "The Scarlet Letter." So I'm sympathetic to your plight. But I think you'll find there's a ton more sex, swearing, and drugs in my book than anything else you have been or will be assigned in high school, and I don't mean in the way your teacher will tell you "You know, Shakespeare has more sex and violence than an R-rated movie!" I mean it's all there, in terms you will readily understand without having to Google them. Plus not once to I refer to anything as a "bare bodkin" or anything like that.
I guess all I'm saying is, of all the books not to read, to beg the Internet to read for you because your library is being remodeled, mine seems like an odd choice.
That's just a small part of his answer, which was rated the "best" of 18 responses. Link | Pierson's post -via Geekosystem
We've been so busy with the new site that Neatorama's seventh anniversary just slipped right past me! Alex is not one to celebrate such things, so I feel the need to point out that Neatorama was born on August 9th, 2005, with this innocuous little post:
It was two years before that post got its first comment. At the time, Neatorama was Alex's hobby, and he made a commitment to post five "neat" items a day, which eventually paid off. Now the site has over 48,000 published posts, a half-dozen authors, sub-blogs and social networking adjuncts, and a shop to support all the rest. And now we have our own blogging platform! It's been a great seven years.
(Image credit: Cakesy)
Once again, it's time for our collaboration with the always fascinating What Is It? Blog. Do you know what this thing is? Or can you make an amusing wild guess?
Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you'd like. 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, okay? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts?
See more at the What Is It? Blog. Good luck!
Update: the pictured object is the first U.S. patented ice pick, number 15,483. The very first commenter, Galen, knew the answer, and wins a t-shirt! The funniest answer came from pismonque, who guessed it to be the original Shake Weight, quite popular in the 19th century until someone put his eye out (which barely beat out "binary abacus," also from pismonque). So pismonque wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! Thanks to everyone who played this week. Find out the answers to all this week's mystery items at the What Is It? blog.
Juila Child gets the auto-tune treatment, courtesy of PBS Digital Studios. August 15th would have been her 100th birthday. PBS has a celebration page up, with information and tributes to the French Chef, as well as recipes, episodes of her show, and even a quiz. Link -via Metafilter
See also: Julia Child's 100th Birthday
Hartman’s Historical Rock Garden in Springfield, Ohio is one of those roadside attractions you should see if you're in the neighborhood. It began as one man's hobby that over time grew into an amazing creation.
The art project dates from 1932, when Harry George Hartman lost his job during the Great Depression. The molder occupied his time with creating rock sculptures in his back yard, spanning all sorts of themes. Religion, historic buildings, recreations of famous battles and hundreds of thousands of stones.
You can see it, too -the admission is free. Or see lots of photographs at Random Good Stuff. Link
A mother tries her best to deal with a son who is addicted to video games. GLUED is a short film by several third year students at the Bezalel Academy of the Arts in Jerusalem. They documented the process of making the film on their project blog. Link
Learn about these strange creatures that are fish shaped like a horse that gestates its babies in the male's body. And better yet, see lovely pictures of seahorses from all over the world at Environmental Graffiti. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user Choh Wah Ye)
Have you been to NeatoBambino lately? Just in the last couple of days, we've posted two new rap songs about dealing with children. Even if you aren't a parent, you'll get a kick out of the clever wordplay.
The Parent Rap involves the whole family, though Mom and Dad are in control. "When it comes to Candyland, I'm a stone cold player."
In Daddy Skills, a young father explains his new life to his old buddy. "Say, dude, look at you, all mature and wise."
Other recent posts show you some neat kid-friendly crafts, like a toy car made from a bottle, a school bus made from a Twinkie, sushi made from recycled plastic, and a flying saucer made out of breakfast! Check them all out at NeatoBambino. Link
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