Before Photoshop, before Snopes, before YouTube, there was Jonathon Newhouse. Or rather, there wasn’t, but he became famous anyway.

In 1874, one man; an inventor of considerable genius, was reported to have completely reversed the effect of the sun. In the scorching heat of the mid-summer Nevada desert, he was found frozen stiff by Indians - his beard covered in frost and an icicle over a foot in length hanging from his nose. That man was Jonathon Newhouse, the genius inventor of solar armor.

The story spread like a virus.

First printed in the Territorial Enterprise on July 2, 1874, the story soon appeared in other publications including Scientific American, The New York Times and The Daily Telegraph, which at the time had the largest circulation in the world.

It took a while before any newspaper asked for corroboration. Then the real story came out. Link -via Digg

(image credit: waytoocrowded)

(Dayrobber link)
A couple of months ago, I posted a “suggestion box” here on Neatorama and hinted that a new project was in the works. I didn’t want to explain what the new project was, since I didn’t know if it would happen, or how long it would take. That project is a video series, a collaboration between Neatorama and Dayrobber, a site where you can see video reports from all kinds of websites. This pilot episode is an experimental prototype. If you think this is an idea worth pursuing, please let us know what kind of subject matter you’d like to see in The Neatorama Show.

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Shigeo Obara, a farmer in Japan’s Iwate prefecture discovered a clover last week with an amazing 21 leaves! The current world record is an 18-leaf clover, which Obara himself grew in 2002.

Obara, a former food crop researcher, has been conducting independent research on clovers in his garden for over 50 years. He first became interested in clover mutations after discovering an unusual patch of 4-leaf clovers in 1951. Since then, Obara has been crossbreeding the plants in his garden to research the genes associated with leaf count, color, pattern and size.

Obara plans to file a new application with Guinness, although he is considering waiting a while. “We are likely to find clovers with more leaves,” he says. Last month, a family member claimed to have found a 27-leaf clover, but the discovery was not confirmed.

Link

Firefighters in Dunbar, Scotland used a vacuum cleaner to extract a newborn kitten from a drain it had fallen into!

It is thought its mother had climbed behind the kitchen sink to give birth.

Rescuers used a vibrascope camera to locate the kitten, owned by Claire Coutts, before using the vacuum cleaner to pull it to safety.

They covered the end of the appliance with a sock to prevent sucking the kitten into the vacuum. Link (with video) -via Arbroath

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OK, I don’t know how it’s done and I can’t find any technical information behind it, but apparently you can play music on a floppy disc with a stepper motor. I found a link to this post in the comments at VideoSift that might makes some sense to those who have more expertise than I do. -via VideoSift

A Spock Monkey. Why didn’t I think of that? Sock monkeys are available in other characters from Star Trek, too. Order now and get a free tribble! Link

You’ll probably get a kick out of this fantasy introduction to the TV news show 60 Minutes that includes... well, just about everyone. Link -via Grow-A-Brain

Residents of Obama, Japan (pop. 34,000) are delighted that Barack Obama is running for president in the US. The campaign has put their town on the map, so to speak, when smaller towns in Japan are competing for new residents. Manufacturers in Obama have labeled snacks, chopsticks, and t-shirts with the senator’s face. A local dance troupe called The Obama Girls traveled to Hawaii to compete in a dance contest, and hinted that they’d like to perform for Barack Obama himself. The US Obama has indicated that he may visit the town sometime. Link -via Dump Trumpet

Some weren’t interested, some didn’t know what they were missing, and others just gave up sex for one reason or another. These six were mostly creative types who were obsessed with their work ahead of... everything else. Pictured is Nikola Tesla, who had no trouble attracting women. Link -via Digg

88-year-old Kimani Nganga Maruge began his education in 2004 after Kenya introduced free primary schooling. That’s when he set the world record for the oldest person to ever start primary school. He attended for four years until last week when he was taken to an elderly care facility.

The school's head teacher, Jane Obinchu, said he had never missed school before and so when he failed to show up on Thursday, they began to look for him.

"We immediately had to establish what had gone wrong to ascertain our fears before his fellow pupils told us they had seen him aboard a Red Cross vehicle," she told the AFP news agency.

The Red Cross later confirmed Mr Maruge had been taken into care.

Ms Obinchu expressed her disappointment at the decision and said it may have been hastily taken.

"He is an international figure who was very keen with his studies. I doubt if he can accept his studies to be interrupted," she added.

The chairman of the local parents' and teachers' association, Albert Kebenei, called on the ministry of education to "come to our rescue" and explained that Mr Maruge had dramatically increased enrolment at the school by inspiring families.

Mr. Maruge had wanted to earn a veterinary diploma. Link -via Arbroath

You know the names, but do you know what that initial stands for? Today’s mental_flosss quiz tests your knowledge of famous people with middle initials. I scored 50%, which is about what I expected. http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/15597

(Break.com link)
I confess, this is a solution to a flat tire that I never considered before. Maybe it will work long enough for this guy to get to the garage. -via Unique Daily

A business name should tell you what kind of business it is, and it should be memorable. This one certainly is! Best Week Ever has pictures of 50 storefronts featuring giggle-inspiring puns. Link -via I Am Bored

Macie Hope McCartney was born twice, once at six months gestation when she was brought out for surgery, and again at eight months. An ultrasound showed that Keri McCartney’s baby had a tumor the size of a grapefruit, benign but still deadly. The only hope was immediate surgery, although the pregnancy wasn’t far enough along to ensure survival. Fetal surgeon Dr. Darrell Cass explained the operation:

“It required that Mrs. McCartney went under a very, very deep anesthesia, about seven times deeper than the average operation,” he said. “That’s necessary in order to have the uterus very, very relaxed.”

He and two other surgeons opened Keri’s abdomen and brought her uterus entirely outside her body. “We had to find an area of the uterus that we could open safely so that we didn’t disturb the placenta,” he explained.

When they found such a place, they opened the relaxed womb and extracted about 80 percent of Macie Hope’s body — which weighed no more than a quarter of a pound — leaving just the head and upper body in the womb. Exposing the fetus to the air carried the danger that she would go into cardiac arrest, and the surgeons worked quickly to remove the tumor and return Macie to the safety of the womb.

That part of the four-hour procedure took about 20 minutes. The surgeons then had to carefully close up the uterus so that it would be watertight, to keep the amniotic fluid from leaking out.

“Then we had to hope that the pregnancy was going to last,” Cass added.

It lasted another ten weeks. Macie Hope was delivered on May 3 perfectly healthy. Link (with video and very graphic slideshow) -via YesButNoButYes

Paul Nicklen is a photographer for National Geographic Magazine. Over the course of several days last year, he developed a relationship with a 12-foot 1,000 pound leopard seal. She brought him penguins to eat and even tried to teach him how to hunt penguins! The story is told in a multimedia presentation on Nicklen’s work. Link -via Arbroath

(image credit: Paul Nicklen/National Geographic)