The movie Caddyshack was released on July 25th, 1980. My, has that really been 30 years? What better to celebrate than a Lunchtime Quiz from mental_floss! Test your recall of this now-classic film. I only scored 50%; you will do better. Link
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The movie Caddyshack was released on July 25th, 1980. My, has that really been 30 years? What better to celebrate than a Lunchtime Quiz from mental_floss! Test your recall of this now-classic film. I only scored 50%; you will do better. Link
Kyle Merriman recently visited Nara Dreamland, the abandoned Disneyland knockoff theme park in Nara, Japan that was built in 1961 and closed in 2006. He found it to be fairly intact, except for the fact that there are no people there and the weeds have grown everywhere. See the state of the park in a gallery of 56 photographs. http://www.brandknewme.com/?p=845
Previously at Neatorama: Nara Dreamland, an Alternate Universe Disneyland
This video of a lightning bolt was filmed at 9,000 frames per second. The entire minute-and-a-half video covers less than two seconds of real time. Is this cool or what? -via Dr. Isis
Geeks Are Sexy proves that some are indeed in this collection of costumed participants at Comic-Con 2010, last week in San Diego. In addition to these, they are asking for your cosplay photographs to be published in another post. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user Arnold Tijerina)
The term Flugtag is German for "flight day". The Red Bull Flugtag in St. Paul, Minnesota, was Saturday and the homemade flying machine competition took place on the Mississippi River. As many as 90,000 people turned out to see entry after entry plunge into the river. A new world record for these events was set by a team called Major Trouble and the Dirty Dixies, whose glider flew 207 feet! After seeing the other nine top finishers in the video at the link, you will be even more impressed by that 207-foot flight. http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/99177024.html -via TYWKIWDBI
Once again: if you want to be taken seriously, don't use the Comic Sans font in your passive-aggressive notes. Link -via I Met a Possum
Johnny Cat pointed out that Stephen King's latest movie novel Under the Dome may cause you to recall the 2007 film The Simpsons, as both involve a city suddenly isolated under a glass dome.
If you've seen the movies and read the book, let us know what you think. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/under-the-dome-by-stephen-king-1818801.html -via The Litter Box
Fans seem less convinced that the novel's conceit – a town discovers that it is encased in a giant dome, put there by an unknown force – is so terrific. Many took to the internet to point out that a similar plot was the basis for The Simpsons Movie. King took to his website to respond that he had never seen the movie and that the similarity came as a complete surprise. Fans reacted with incredulity, pointing out that not only is King a pop- culture omnivore, but has played on stage with The Simpsons creator Matt Groening in his Rock Bottom Remainders band. King then gave a different account of the book's origins, this time saying he started it in 1978 or thereabouts, and wrote a second, unpublished version called The Cannibals in 1985. In order to silence any accusations of plagiarism, he published the first 60 pages on his website (in the original IBM typescript to prove its age).
But the problem is not who had the idea first. King may argue that "stories can be no more alike than snowflakes" as "no two human imaginations are exactly alike", but Stephen King novels and Simpsons movies are similar in that they are big pop-culture events aimed at roughly the same sort of audience – and with such events, the concept is as important as the execution. Also, both film and novel use their conceit to give dramatic focus to tales of the interconnected lives of a large cast of everyday small-town Americans. It doesn't matter whether King has seen the film; his readers have, and this takes some of the shine off his novel.
If you've seen the movies and read the book, let us know what you think. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/under-the-dome-by-stephen-king-1818801.html -via The Litter Box
The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges Into History Again.
You've seen these men in black everywhere, usually in a group, threatening a movie hero. But how much do you really know about the dark warriors of feudal Japan? It's time to separate the men from the myth.
1. The ninja were a clan of evil assassins for hire.
Myth! In the movies, ninja are portrayed as evil mercenaries crawling out of the woodwork to make sashimi out of the good guy. In reality, they were mountain people of Japan who were systematically harassed by the samurai ruling class 400 years ago. Mostly they farmed. For self-defense when outnumbered, the ninja created a fighting system call Ninjutsu, "the art of stealth". When money got tight the occasional ninja would sell his skills. These few renegades created the stereotype of ninja as the warrior killer.
2. One ninja could sometimes defeat five soldiers.
Fact! Ninja specifically trained to fight more than one opponent. But they considered escape a victory. Their big-city oppressors outnumbered them, so training involved "dirty" fighting tactics that would scare or injure adversaries just long enough for ninja to get away. The samurai were trained in one-on-one fighting against an opponent who actively engages, not a slippery man in black who kicks you in the toe and disappears. Ninja learned to get the job done quickly. A ninja boxing match wouldn't make a good spectator sport: one pokes the other in the eye and climbs a tree.
Myth! Lady ninja were called kunoichi. Occasionally, some wielded swords like the men, but most often, they were trained as spies and messengers to help gather information that would help their clan. Kunoichi used the illusion of helplessness to their advantage, wielding secret weapons like sashes, fans, combs, and umbrellas when forced to fight. n occasion, they assassinated unsuspecting "suitors". They even carried a bag of little, bladed finger gloves that gave them the equivalent of iron press-on nails of death!
Myth! While ninja may have appeared magical, they put their pajamas on one leg at a time, just like everybody else. In battle, though, they used this legend to frighten their enemies. The height of ninja activities was during the 1600s; but by the 1800s, most ninja action involved farming or looking for work. Yet ninja buzz kept growing through art, theater, and word of mouth. By the 1900s, ninja were portrayed as practically superhuman.
Myth! In real life, ninja dressed for the job at hand; they usually looked like everyone else. When sneaking into an enemy lair, they wore the uniforms of their adversaries to trick them. By the Edo Period (1603-1867), their exploits were famous enough to hit the Kabuki theater. Taking the stealthy reputation of the ninja into consideration, Kabuki troupes decided to portray ninja the same as stagehands-dressed all in black so as not to be seen by the audience. Henceforth, all ninja were portrayed in black.
6. Ninja in training walked through fire, stood under freezing waterfalls, and dangled themelves over cliffs.
Fact! As Japan's Edo Period wore on, the ninja became less secretive. There were no more feudal wars left to fight. Ninja masters wrote books, opened schools to teach others, and became scholars. And their fighting became world famous. In the 1980s, the American film Enter the Ninja set off a brief ninja craze in the United States, and lots of schools opened (some more authentic than others). There are thousands of practicing ninja in the United States today.
The book is a compendium of entertaining information chock-full of facts on a plethora of history topics. Uncle John's first plunge into history was a smash hit - over half a million copies sold! And this sequel gives you more colorful characters, cultural milestones, historical hindsight, groundbreaking events, and scintillating sagas.
Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. Check out their website here: Bathroom Reader Institute
You've seen these men in black everywhere, usually in a group, threatening a movie hero. But how much do you really know about the dark warriors of feudal Japan? It's time to separate the men from the myth.
1. The ninja were a clan of evil assassins for hire.
Myth! In the movies, ninja are portrayed as evil mercenaries crawling out of the woodwork to make sashimi out of the good guy. In reality, they were mountain people of Japan who were systematically harassed by the samurai ruling class 400 years ago. Mostly they farmed. For self-defense when outnumbered, the ninja created a fighting system call Ninjutsu, "the art of stealth". When money got tight the occasional ninja would sell his skills. These few renegades created the stereotype of ninja as the warrior killer.
2. One ninja could sometimes defeat five soldiers.
Fact! Ninja specifically trained to fight more than one opponent. But they considered escape a victory. Their big-city oppressors outnumbered them, so training involved "dirty" fighting tactics that would scare or injure adversaries just long enough for ninja to get away. The samurai were trained in one-on-one fighting against an opponent who actively engages, not a slippery man in black who kicks you in the toe and disappears. Ninja learned to get the job done quickly. A ninja boxing match wouldn't make a good spectator sport: one pokes the other in the eye and climbs a tree.
(Image from the film Sengoku Yaro. Source: Vintage Ninjas)
3. All ninja were male.Myth! Lady ninja were called kunoichi. Occasionally, some wielded swords like the men, but most often, they were trained as spies and messengers to help gather information that would help their clan. Kunoichi used the illusion of helplessness to their advantage, wielding secret weapons like sashes, fans, combs, and umbrellas when forced to fight. n occasion, they assassinated unsuspecting "suitors". They even carried a bag of little, bladed finger gloves that gave them the equivalent of iron press-on nails of death!
(Image from the film Kaze no Bushi. Source: Vintage Ninjas)
4. Ninja practiced black magic and had supernatural powers.Myth! While ninja may have appeared magical, they put their pajamas on one leg at a time, just like everybody else. In battle, though, they used this legend to frighten their enemies. The height of ninja activities was during the 1600s; but by the 1800s, most ninja action involved farming or looking for work. Yet ninja buzz kept growing through art, theater, and word of mouth. By the 1900s, ninja were portrayed as practically superhuman.
(Image credit: Flickr user Jérôme Sadou)
5. Ninjas always wore black.
Myth! In real life, ninja dressed for the job at hand; they usually looked like everyone else. When sneaking into an enemy lair, they wore the uniforms of their adversaries to trick them. By the Edo Period (1603-1867), their exploits were famous enough to hit the Kabuki theater. Taking the stealthy reputation of the ninja into consideration, Kabuki troupes decided to portray ninja the same as stagehands-dressed all in black so as not to be seen by the audience. Henceforth, all ninja were portrayed in black.
6. Ninja in training walked through fire, stood under freezing waterfalls, and dangled themelves over cliffs.
Fact! As Japan's Edo Period wore on, the ninja became less secretive. There were no more feudal wars left to fight. Ninja masters wrote books, opened schools to teach others, and became scholars. And their fighting became world famous. In the 1980s, the American film Enter the Ninja set off a brief ninja craze in the United States, and lots of schools opened (some more authentic than others). There are thousands of practicing ninja in the United States today.
(Image credit: Flickr user RodrigoFavera)
______________________________
The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges Into History Again.The book is a compendium of entertaining information chock-full of facts on a plethora of history topics. Uncle John's first plunge into history was a smash hit - over half a million copies sold! And this sequel gives you more colorful characters, cultural milestones, historical hindsight, groundbreaking events, and scintillating sagas.
Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. Check out their website here: Bathroom Reader Institute
What's 36 feet tall, made of straw, and peers over the Nantwich horizon? A meerkat, of course! Snugburys Ice Cream Farm of Hurleston in England erects a big straw statue every summer.
The colossal meerkat has eyes that light up. Link -via Arbroath
The concept started in 1998 with a huge Millennium Dome sculpture and has also seen a straw replica of the Lovell telescope, London Eye as well as last year’s Big Ben standing beside the A51 near Chester.
Director Chris Sadler and his wife Cheryl come up with the ideas and the creations are made by Mike Harper, who builds a steel skeleton which is then stuffed with hay.
Speaking about this year’s design, Mr Harper, 57, said: ‘Everyone loves meerkats, especially my wife, so we thought it would be a good idea.
The colossal meerkat has eyes that light up. Link -via Arbroath
Several original posts this past week at Neatorama had to do with the Disney company in one way or another. Stacy Conradt stepped back in from her maternity leave and wrote Toy Story Movie Trivia. Jill Harness went to Disneyland and then gave us Neatorama Facts: Haunted Mansion. Then Alex posted some vintage photographs from The Early Days of Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
The Museum of Possibilities has a couple of new exhibits with If I Were an Architect and Possibilities for Mutation in Necktie Design.
5 Confusing Biblical Rules (and What They May Mean) from mental_floss magazine sparked a lively round of opinions in the comments.
Uncle John's Bathroom Reader explored the real origins of America's pastime in The Baseball Myth.
At NeatoGeek we learned about 5 Sci-Fi Actors Who Were War Heroes in Real Life, by John Farrier.
The most popular post of the week was 10 Things You Didn't Know About Ghostbusters by yours truly. That was one popular movie -and still popular 26 years later!
You'll want to check out three new artists at the Art Blog: printmaker Julia Wolfson, sillkscreen printer Byung Kim, and illustrator Laura Barnard.
T-shirts from the NeatoShop are up for grabs in the What is it? game. As soon as I get the winners' names, I'll add them here. Congratulations to cynric, who won a t-shirt in NeatoGeek's weekly Caption Contest -his caption is now in the post. Also, stay tuned for a special announcement in the GTFO competition!
Don't forget, there's more fun and nonsense happening every day on our Facebook page, and you'll certainly want to follow your favorite site on Twitter.
The Museum of Possibilities has a couple of new exhibits with If I Were an Architect and Possibilities for Mutation in Necktie Design.
5 Confusing Biblical Rules (and What They May Mean) from mental_floss magazine sparked a lively round of opinions in the comments.
Uncle John's Bathroom Reader explored the real origins of America's pastime in The Baseball Myth.
At NeatoGeek we learned about 5 Sci-Fi Actors Who Were War Heroes in Real Life, by John Farrier.
The most popular post of the week was 10 Things You Didn't Know About Ghostbusters by yours truly. That was one popular movie -and still popular 26 years later!
You'll want to check out three new artists at the Art Blog: printmaker Julia Wolfson, sillkscreen printer Byung Kim, and illustrator Laura Barnard.
T-shirts from the NeatoShop are up for grabs in the What is it? game. As soon as I get the winners' names, I'll add them here. Congratulations to cynric, who won a t-shirt in NeatoGeek's weekly Caption Contest -his caption is now in the post. Also, stay tuned for a special announcement in the GTFO competition!
Don't forget, there's more fun and nonsense happening every day on our Facebook page, and you'll certainly want to follow your favorite site on Twitter.
Police in Larkspur, Colorado investigated a complaint of a car with the horn blaring for 45 minutes in the middle of the night. They found the car, with a bear inside it. What's more, the bear had taken the car where the police found it! Ben Story had parked his car the night before and did not lock it. What's more, there was a sandwich inside, which bears find hard to resist.
Police declined to open the car door, and finally freed the bear by tying a rope to the door handle so they could open it from further away. The bear wandered off, leaving the vehicle's interior shredded. http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/24364913/detail.html#
Ben's father, Ralph, said the bear hit the shifter and the car rolled backward about 125 feet, off the driveway, down an embankment and into some trees on Eagle Road near Tenderfoot Drive.
"So this bear opened the door on his own. Somehow the door closed behind him. He panicked and started thrashing around, hit the shifter and put the car, took it out of park," Ralph said. "It rolled back, down over the hill, and down into here, and stopped. The four way flashers were on. It's like he knew what was going on, and kept hitting the horn."
Police declined to open the car door, and finally freed the bear by tying a rope to the door handle so they could open it from further away. The bear wandered off, leaving the vehicle's interior shredded. http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/24364913/detail.html#
If you decide to be cremated when the time comes, your choice of final resting places will be much greater than if you were to be buried. Mental_floss takes a look at some of the more, hmm ...imaginative ways people have stored, scattered, reused, or disposed of their ashes.
Link
The name Fredric Baur may not ring any bells, but you know his most famous creation. In 1966 Baur invented the Pringles can so Procter & Gamble could ship its new chips without using bags. Baur was so proud of the achievement that he told his children he wanted to be buried in the iconic can. When he died in 2008 at 89, they honored his wishes by placing his ashes in a Pringles can before burying them. According to his son Larry, Baur’s children briefly debated what flavor canister to use before settling on original.
Link
Yellow-bellied marmots in Colorado are gaining weight and producing more offspring compared to thirty years ago. The difference is attributed to climate change.
As the marmots grow bigger, other species are not doing as well. The number of tall bluebells and tenacious wolverines has declined. Link -via Dave Barry's Blog
In the Rocky Mountains, these marmots usually hibernate for seven to eight months of the year, which make the summer months "a very busy time for them," Arpat Ozgul, of the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London and lead author of the new paper, said in a prepared statement. "They have to eat and gain weight, get pregnant, produce offspring and get ready to hibernate again."
But as the Colorado summers have grown longer, so too has the time the marmots have to do all of these things—and do them better. This extra preparation (and reproduction) time means that "they are more likely to succeed and survive," said Ozgul, whose results were published online July 21 in the journal Nature (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group).
As the marmots grow bigger, other species are not doing as well. The number of tall bluebells and tenacious wolverines has declined. Link -via Dave Barry's Blog
The Valencia Club in Penryn, California had been closed for a year when 29-year-old Travis Kevie helped himself to the business. He broke in and posted a sign that the bar was open. Kevie sold drinks for four days until a newspaper article mentioned that Valencia had re-opened, which interested county detective Jim Hudson.
Kevie is being held on charges of selling liquor without a license and, of course, burglary. Link -via Arbroath
(Image credit: Ben Furtado/Auburn Journal)
Not only had Detective Hudson had previous run-ins with Kevie, he knew the Valencia Club's liquor license had been surrendered.
When Detective Hudson went to the bar to investigate, he found it open for business and customers at the bar. Kevie quickly went from behind the bar to behind bars.
Kevie is being held on charges of selling liquor without a license and, of course, burglary. Link -via Arbroath
(Image credit: Ben Furtado/Auburn Journal)
The Kleptones mashed up the Beatles song "Come Together" with a lot of other songs, and Crumbs Chief pieced together a video for it as part of the Videotones project. How many of these dance scenes do you recall from the original movies? -via mental_floss
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