Brazilian Lucas Jatobá gave us the video Goodbye Barcelona! earlier this year. Since then, he's been in Sydney, Australia. On his 30th birthday, he gave 30 gifts to random stangers and made of video of the experience. The music is “To Build a Home” by Cinematic Orchestra. At Jatobá's site, you'll find a list of the gifts, and links to more pictures and the funny "making of" video. Link -Thanks, Lucas!
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(vimeo link)
The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center may be gone, but they live on in film. Dan Meth put together this supercut of the buildings' many appearances in movies. Here's a list of the movies the towers were seen in. -via The Desonesto Doctrine
After years of marketing to only small consumers, American Apparel decided to begin offering a limited selection of fashions in size XL. In announcing this, the company launched a competition called The Next BIG Thing Contest to find a plus-size model. Nancy Upton is a size 12 actress, and no fan of American Apparel. She entered the contest with the intention of mocking it.
Upton submitted a set of photographs of herself (mostly with food) taken by her friend Shannon Skloss. After the photos were approved for the contest and posted, Upton received more votes from the public than any of the other entrants! Upton writes about her feelings on winning the contest at The Daily Beast. Link -via Metafiter
More pictures and links about the project can be found at Upton's blog (some are NSFW): Link
(Image credit: Shannon Skloss)
The puns, the insulting, giggly tones, and the over-used euphemisms for fat that were scattered throughout the campaign's solicitation began to crystalize an opinion in my mind. How offensive the campaign was. How it spoke to plus-sized women like they were starry-eyed 16 year olds from Kansas whose dream, obviously, was to hop a bus to L.A. to make it big in fashion. How apparently there were no words in existence to accurately describe the way American Apparel felt about a sexy, large woman, and so phrases like “booty-ful” and “XLent” would need to be invented for us—not only to fill this void in American vocabulary, but also make the company seem like a relatable, sassy friend to fat chicks.
Upton submitted a set of photographs of herself (mostly with food) taken by her friend Shannon Skloss. After the photos were approved for the contest and posted, Upton received more votes from the public than any of the other entrants! Upton writes about her feelings on winning the contest at The Daily Beast. Link -via Metafiter
More pictures and links about the project can be found at Upton's blog (some are NSFW): Link
(Image credit: Shannon Skloss)
The following is an article from the book Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Salutes the Armed Forces.
Before World War II, cartoons with war themes attempted to use humor or satire to sway public opinion. The spread of military newspapers and the inclusion of cartoons as a feature designed to boost morale changed all that.
UP FRONT
Arguably the most well-known of the World War II cartoonists, Bill Mauldin created the characters Willie and Joe, who were depicted as rank-and-file soldiers dealing with the realities of war without sugarcoating that some leaders, including General George S. Patton, would have preferred to see. Mauldin's caricatures, which began in 1940 when he was an 18-year-old in the U.S. Army's 45th Infantry Division, were initially published in the division's newsletter and soon became hugely popular with the soldiers on the front lines. In 1943 Mauldin's cartoon was picked up by Stars and Stripes and was then distributed domestically by United Features Syndicate as Up Front, thanks in part to the war correspondent Ernie Pyle, who helped bring the cartoons to the attention of the general public.
Bill Mauldin did not attempt to glorify the fighting in any manner; rather, he used wry humor to demonstrate the absurdities of war. For example, to make an exaggerated commentary on the practice of sending increasingly younger soldiers to the front lines, Mauldin showed Willie and Joe in a bunker, reading a notice handed to them by an adolescent dressed in a soldier's uniform. One says to the other, "I guess it's okay. The replacement center says he comes from a long line of infantrymen."
SAD SACK
At the time that he was drafted in the U.S. Army in June 1941, George Baker was a struggling animator on the verge of losing his job with the Walt Disney Company in Los Angeles. Although the war in Europe had been raging for several years, the possibility of the United States entering the war seemed remote to many at the time. Baker and other soldiers went through the motions of their training with little sense of purpose, waiting for their one-year enlistment to be up so they could get on with their lives.
To break up the monotony of Army life, Baker began to create drawings on his own time, attempting to explain pictorially what life was like in the armed forces. After taking his drawings to several New York publishers and being rejected, a despondent Baker put his cartoons away and tried to forget about them. However, a few months later, the armed forces sponsored a cartoon contest for servicemen. Baker decided to enter one of his drawing into the contest -and won first prize. This caught the attention of the editor of the Army's Yank magazine, Major Hartzell Spence, who secured Baker a position on the Yank's staff. Baker worked for Yank for the duration of World War II, moving from one training camp to another as a salesman for the magazine while also being exposed to the many facets of Army life, which he then used for the basis of his cartoons.
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Before World War II, cartoons with war themes attempted to use humor or satire to sway public opinion. The spread of military newspapers and the inclusion of cartoons as a feature designed to boost morale changed all that.
UP FRONT
Arguably the most well-known of the World War II cartoonists, Bill Mauldin created the characters Willie and Joe, who were depicted as rank-and-file soldiers dealing with the realities of war without sugarcoating that some leaders, including General George S. Patton, would have preferred to see. Mauldin's caricatures, which began in 1940 when he was an 18-year-old in the U.S. Army's 45th Infantry Division, were initially published in the division's newsletter and soon became hugely popular with the soldiers on the front lines. In 1943 Mauldin's cartoon was picked up by Stars and Stripes and was then distributed domestically by United Features Syndicate as Up Front, thanks in part to the war correspondent Ernie Pyle, who helped bring the cartoons to the attention of the general public.
Bill Mauldin did not attempt to glorify the fighting in any manner; rather, he used wry humor to demonstrate the absurdities of war. For example, to make an exaggerated commentary on the practice of sending increasingly younger soldiers to the front lines, Mauldin showed Willie and Joe in a bunker, reading a notice handed to them by an adolescent dressed in a soldier's uniform. One says to the other, "I guess it's okay. The replacement center says he comes from a long line of infantrymen."
SAD SACK
At the time that he was drafted in the U.S. Army in June 1941, George Baker was a struggling animator on the verge of losing his job with the Walt Disney Company in Los Angeles. Although the war in Europe had been raging for several years, the possibility of the United States entering the war seemed remote to many at the time. Baker and other soldiers went through the motions of their training with little sense of purpose, waiting for their one-year enlistment to be up so they could get on with their lives.
To break up the monotony of Army life, Baker began to create drawings on his own time, attempting to explain pictorially what life was like in the armed forces. After taking his drawings to several New York publishers and being rejected, a despondent Baker put his cartoons away and tried to forget about them. However, a few months later, the armed forces sponsored a cartoon contest for servicemen. Baker decided to enter one of his drawing into the contest -and won first prize. This caught the attention of the editor of the Army's Yank magazine, Major Hartzell Spence, who secured Baker a position on the Yank's staff. Baker worked for Yank for the duration of World War II, moving from one training camp to another as a salesman for the magazine while also being exposed to the many facets of Army life, which he then used for the basis of his cartoons.
(YouTube link)
The Yip Yip Martians from Sesame Street were a hit at DragonCon 2011. The description at YouTube says it all:
simply put, one of the most entertaining and crowd pleasing cosplay costumes EVER... there wasn't a single person who saw these guys who didn't explode into joy.
If you are not familiar with these characters, you can watch the Muppets in one of their original Sesame Street sketches. -via reddit
Grant Woolard is so patriotic, he sang the national anthems of six countries -and then mashed them up in this musical collage. It works surprisingly well! You'll hear the anthems of Germany, Canada, France, the UK, Spain, and the US. -Thanks, Grant!
Tomorrow is the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. We mark the occasion every year, but this milestone is different. Of course, we will never forget the victims of those attacks, but now we are looking ahead. New buildings are rising, Osama bin Laden is gone, and 9/11 is being added to school history curriculums. The Flight 93 Memorial in Pennsylvania will be dedicated today, and the National September 11 Memorial in New York will be dedicated tomorrow. We had own own mini-memorial for 9/11 victims here at Neatorama, courtesy of StoryCorps. We also had a lot of other neat stuff for you this week.
Eddie Deezen recalled some of our favorite Evil Twins from '60s Television.
There's more Scooby-Doo than you realized, as Jill Harness told us in Scooby-Dooby-Doo: Still Running Strong.
From Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, we learned about serial killer Belle Gunness: The Terror of La Porte.
Four Score and Seven Lattes Ago looked at the role of coffee in the Civil War, courtesy of mental_floss magazine.
The Annals of Improbable Research gave us Body of Work: Guéguen and the Goad of Small Things. Imagine a French scientist spending his life researching things like breasts and their effect on men.
Strangely, the most popular post of the week was from a few years back. 10 Insulting Words You Should Know was linked on Metafilter and The Daily What, which we appreciate. I think someone has been perusing the Best of Neatorama!
Contests! We got contests! In the Star Wars Lightsaber Mini Hunt from last week, we had four, count 'em, four winners, announced here.
We started a contest last weekend called Our Little PostSecret, which is still open for entries, but not for long! The three winners of the new PostSecret book should be announced tomorrow night.
In the What Is It? game this week, the object pictured is a cobbler’s tool for stretching and holding leather when making a shoe. Quite a few people guessed it was a clamp, but Winslow was the first to mention shoes, so he wins a t-shirt! Amanderpanderer had the funniest answer, amirite? “All ladies know this…it’s a speculum. Gynocologists seem to think it works best when it’s put in the freezer for a few minutes first.” For that, she also wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop.
When you've caught up on everything here, be sure to check our Facebook page every day for extra content, contests, discussions, videos, and links you won't find on our main page. Also, our Twitter feed will keep you updated on what's going around the web in real time. And remember, we always welcome your comments, feedback, and suggestions for making Neatorama ever better.
Last year, the folks at Big Cat Rescue showed us how big cats react to catnip. Here they investigate another burning question: will big cats chase a laser dot the way house cats do? Let's hide and watch. -via The Daily What
After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, people in countries all over the world showed sympathy, solidarity, and support for the US as we mourned those we lost. Mental_floss has a roundup of the international reactions to the events. Here's a small sample:
Read the rest in a post by Haley Sweetland Edwards. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user Thomas Ormston)
In London, the Star Spangled Banner played during the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, while traffic came to a standstill in The Mall nearby.
In Beijing, tens of thousands of people visited the U.S. Embassy, leaving flowers, cards, funeral wreaths and hand-written notes of condolence on the sidewalk out front.
In Moscow, women who spoke no English and had never been to the U.S. were captured on film sobbing in front of a makeshift tribute on a sidewalk, and every single church and monastery in Romania held a memorial prayer.
In France, a well-known newspaper, Le Monde, ran a headline reading, “We Are All Americans.”
In the Middle East, both the Israeli president and the Palestinian leader condemned the attacks, and made a show of donating blood.
Read the rest in a post by Haley Sweetland Edwards. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user Thomas Ormston)
It would have never occurred to me to take a ride in an aqueduct, but now I want to! Before railroads, before highways, Britain built many elevated waterways to transport cargo from place to place. Many are still there, and they are fascinating. Shown is the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in Wales, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is open for tourist traffic. See ten such UK aqueducts at WebUrbanist. Link
Why The Nose is a site full of images and videos of people wearing red clown noses. In answer to the obvious (and titular) question:
You can enjoy the images, send it to someone who needs a smile, or submit your own pictures. Link -via Metafiilter
Whythenose.com is dedicated to the act of wearing a clown nose, in order to make people smile.
It’s really that simple. In a world filled with distractions and distrust, you’d be amazed at how many people (of all ages) have lost a sense of innocence. Or maybe you wouldn’t…
Wearing a clown nose is fun, it’s childlike, it’s easy and it’s free (if you already have the nose)
You can enjoy the images, send it to someone who needs a smile, or submit your own pictures. Link -via Metafiilter
This image of Manhattan was taken by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) aboard the Landsat 7 satellite, about 27 hours after the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. It was uploaded to Flickr only a couple of hours ago. Link -via Gizmodo
(Image credit: Flickr user NASA Goddard Photo and Video)
The Inca civilization grew a variety of crops in the Andes Mountains, despite the rough terrain and scant rainfall, using sophisticated agricultural methods developed over centuries. Those methods faded away when the conquistadors took over, partly because so many Incas died of war and disease, and also because the invaders insisted on doing things their own way. But the hillside terraces and irrigation systems used by ancient Incas were the most efficient way to grow crops in the Andes.
The rainfall is still scant and the hills are still steep, and there is renewed interest in employing the ancient and diversified crops and the traditional ways of farming in the Andes. Read all about it at Smithsonian. Link
(Image credit: Cynthia Graber)
The terraces leveled the planting area, but they also had several unexpected advantages, Kendall discovered. The stone retaining walls heat up during the day and slowly release that heat to the soil as temperatures plunge at night, keeping sensitive plant roots warm during the sometimes frosty nights and expanding the growing season. And the terraces are extremely efficient at conserving scarce water from rain or irrigation canals, says Kendall. “We’ve excavated terraces, for example, six months after they’ve been irrigated, and they’re still damp inside. So if you have drought, they’re the best possible mechanism.” If the soil weren’t mixed with gravel, points out Kendall, “when it rained the water would log inside, and the soil would expand and it would push out the wall.” Kendall says that the Incan terraces are even today probably the most sophisticated in the world, as they build on knowledge developed over about 11,000 years of farming in the region.
The rainfall is still scant and the hills are still steep, and there is renewed interest in employing the ancient and diversified crops and the traditional ways of farming in the Andes. Read all about it at Smithsonian. Link
(Image credit: Cynthia Graber)
(YouTube link)
Michel and Sven show you the ultimate trick. Methinks there be shenanigans involved. But they practiced a lot to get it right! -via reddit
An unauthorized theme park based on the mobile game Angry Birds has opened at Window of the World Park in Changsha, China. Participants can use a real giant slingshot to knock pigs off a structure, as seen in a video clip.
Rovio, the company that produces the game, may license the rights to an Angry Birds themed park in the future, but no deal was made with the people who opened the Chinese attraction. Link
Fortunately, the birds and the pigs are not as real as the intellectual property case that the game’s owners have against the park, which CNNGo reports opened on September 1 in Hunan province as part of a month-long stress reduction festival.
“This [Angry Birds park] serves as a method for people to purge themselves and to gain happiness,” a park official told Chinese gaming website Gamersky.com.
Rovio, the company that produces the game, may license the rights to an Angry Birds themed park in the future, but no deal was made with the people who opened the Chinese attraction. Link
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